


The Choices That We Make

by NinjaRiderWriter



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Character Death, Corruptive Mirakuru, Escape the Island, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Mental Instability, Mirakuru!Oliver, Mirakuru!Slade, Oliver and Slade need help, Protective Oliver, Resurrection By Mirakuru, Self-Sacrifice, Shado lives, Super Soldier Serum, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 14:10:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12936939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaRiderWriter/pseuds/NinjaRiderWriter
Summary: Two paths were presented to Oliver Queen that night when Ivo made him choose between Sara and Shado. Either one of those paths ended with the death of someone he loved. That night Oliver did something that changed his life and the lives around him. He took a third path, a path less traveled by. A path where he sacrificed himself. A path that changed everything.Or,Oliver makes one selfless decision, and everything changes.





	1. One Simple Choice: Who?

"Choose, Oliver!" Dr. Anthony Ivo commanded the young billionaire castaway, holding up a .44 Magnum for all the world to see. The steel glinted coldly in the soft moonlight. The man's form was submerged in the cooling fog that often wrapped itself in Lian Yu as night, the only light aside from the stars and moon came from hand held flashlights. Dark shadows clung to the edges of the clearing, held back by the artificial lights carried by Ivo's crewmen.

Oliver had never been much of a religious man, he usually had spent his Sunday nights in bed till the afternoon fighting off a raging hangover than dressing up for church, and when he had been marooned on this purgatory, his belief in a higher Entity had started to dwindle as day by day he lost more of humanity with each death he dealt and the death of his father and Yao Fei. But as he looked at the mad man who, despite his profession, easily held an instrument of death in his hands and looked eager to use it. Oliver saw the Devil in human form.

Frozen in place, Oliver just stared at Ivo, his brilliant blue eyes burning with a fury so hot they seemed to gleam brighter than the artificial lighting from the flashlights.

Ivo placed the gun atop Shado's head, his finger poised to pull the trigger. Shado didn't look at him, her eyes were averted and tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried for her dead comrade without shame of weakness.

With a furrowed brow when Ivo noticed Oliver hadn't made his choice, he moved on to the prone form of the shivering Sara Lance. "I said choose!" The man spoke, tone so soft it terrified Oliver more than if there had been screaming. Screaming was something evil people did in the movies. But all there was was that chilling gentleness, hardened by resolution. There was madness in his eyes.  "Or I'll shoot them both in the head… What's it going to be Oliver?"

_What was it going to be?_

Oliver had no clue. The situation seemed so unreal, like a nightmare turned into a demonic hallucination. His heart beat heavily in his chest, shock still burning in his body as he thought of Slade abandoned in the old Japanese sub, his body cooling and the blood trailing down his eyes drying. This couldn't be happening. It _couldn't be happening._  They had just lost Slade; his mentor, his companion, his _brother._ And now he was between another rock and a hard place, they seemed to be everywhere on this hellish island, and he just couldn't move.

"Ollie…" Sara whimpered, her shuddering form seemed so small with Ivo's gun placed at her head, the bullet just itching to slam through her skull and end her life.

Shado didn't say anything; she just continued to mourn the violent death of Slade, her small form hunched over as though the entire weight of the world had suddenly dropped upon her shoulders. Defeat etched deep into her very person.

_Only two of them were getting out of here…._

The thought made his body jerk violently, as the situation hit him full force like a missile strike to the chest. He had to choose, Shado or Sara? Time seemed to stop as he realized this.

It would be so easy, _so_ easy to just leap in front of Sara and save her from the wrath of Ivo. Her appearance had been abrupt and completely unexpected; her rising from her supposed watery grave had been a complete shock to the former playboy. Maybe that's what Ivo expected, the brave man saving the one he had condemned to this life after inviting her on that stupid yacht. Maybe Sara thought that too, expected it even.

And Shado… Shado seemed to have lost every ounce of fight in her. There was a  weary resignation in her red-rimmed, tearful eyes, as though was waiting for Oliver to jump in front of Sara, to be the hero that saved the girl he had wronged. Sara was trembling and quivering in the face of the death, but Shado just looked tired, Oliver wondered at that. Was she tired of fighting, the constant awareness of enemies lurking underneath every blade of grass and behind every tree? The needless and countless deaths that plagued this purgatory, her father had died before her, killed by Fryers with a bullet in the head. Slade's death had been horrific and gory, his body literally being torn apart from the inside from infection and later the Mirakuru, the so called Miracle, till his steady strong heart just stopped beating.

Sara or Shado?

Sara was the perfect example of his previous life, of the Oliver Queen who had boarded the Queen's Gambit with his girlfriend's sister, the Oliver who crawled from that lifeboat unaware of where he had landed, and of Starling City. His beautiful home, his countless friends, his baby sister Thea, his mother Moira, Tommy, and even Laurel. He owed it to Laurel to bring her sister back, to make sure she survived, Sara wouldn't be in this mess had he not freaked out over his stupid worries of relationship commitment with Laurel. Sara defined his dreams to return home, to be with those he loved once more.

Shado was the perfect example of his life now, here on Lian Yu. The foolish, weak playboy known as Oliver Queen had died when he came face to face with Edward Fryers and Bill Wintergreen, and now a stronger man kneeled in absolute defeat. Shado had taught him to survive, to be strong. She had taught him how to use a bow, to actually hit a tree with an arrow. She healed them when Slade and Oliver had gotten injured; she had kicked their asses as much as she saved them. Shado was strong, fierce and brave, Oliver admired her so much, he wanted to be like her. He wanted to be strong for her. 

Sara was his past and Shado was his present, the two halves of Oliver Queen. But what of his future?

With an odd sense of detachment, as though he were hovering outside of his body and only half aware, Oliver came to a realization. It didn't matter what happened because if either Shado or Sarah, his two lives, died, than he would die as well, his future didn't matter, all that mattered was the two women in front of him.

By then, Ivo had started to become impatient. No doubt he itched to returned to the _Amazo_ with his _Mirakuru_ and discover its dark and deadly secrets, to rebuild the human race as something stronger, better, greater. It made Oliver want to break down in tears.

How could Ivo think of injecting people with the _Mirakuru?_   Did he not see what had happened to Slade? Strong, gruff Slade, who had died screaming as his very blood, nerves and muscles burned. The blood pouring out of his eyes, like silent tears that cried of murder and darkness.

Ivo's finger slowly pulled back the hammer to the revolver, the metal weapon making a cocking sound that was all too familiar to the defeated party, and it was within that second that Oliver Queen made his decision.

"Stop! Wait!" He shuffled forward as fast as his wounded knees could take him, he didn't kneel in front of Shado or even Sara, but between the two women that made up both sides of Oliver Queen. "Don't shoot them," he pleaded with the madman, his blue eyes wide in desperation and… acceptance. Oliver spoke once more, his voice quiet but full of strength that he had never known to have possessed. "I choose me, kill _me_ Ivo! I'm the one who killed your men, I'm the one who found the hōzen, I'm the one who caused all this trouble for you. Shoot. _Me."_ Oliver looked at the madman square in the eyes, piercing blue meeting startling grey.

Ivo stared at him, Shado and Sara stared at him. The entire clearing seemed to have gone silent at the former billionaire's words. Oliver ignored the silence, instead he just continued to stare up at the doctor, who seemed surprised at the very least.

Ivo glanced down at his gun, the shiny metal hurt Oliver's eyes, and then the man spoke, his voice as soft as a madman's lullaby. "Very well," he pressed the magnum to Oliver's forehead, who resisted the urge to flinch as the cold metal, icy to the touch, touched his skin. "I guess you've made your choice."

Sara started to sob, her slender form shaking violently while silent tears ran down Shado's tanned cheeks. Oliver felt no fear as he stared at the nozzle, only the warm acceptance that told him that he had done the right thing, Shado and Sara didn't deserve to die by his actions. A year ago he was selfish and manipulative, he was a spoilt brat that didn't care about those around him, but the island had changed him, ripped the rotten boy out of him and molded him into the man who stood before two women he loved, having given his life for them. The Oliver of last year would have tried to run away, not caring of the precious lives before him, but this Oliver would die for them.

"Shado… thank you," Oliver was so sure those would be his last words, and he was proud of them. Shado had made him into the better man, she had taught him how to survive and to love again, it had hurt him when she discovered the true origins of Sara and how she had been on the yacht with him, he hoped deep inside him that this act would be enough to mend the hole.

Ivo glared at him, Oliver wondered why he hadn't shot him yet. The gun slowly moved down, not to the ground but to his chest. "Had you chosen one of them," Ivo nodded his heads to the bound females, "I would have shot them in the head, quick and painless, but _you."_ Ivo's face turned into a snarl, an ugly grimace of pure hatred and rage. "You ruined everything, I'm going to kill you slowly and painfully… Goodbye Oliver Queen."

The sound of the gunshot rang through the jungle of Lian Yu, surrounding wildlife fled from the sound in fear. The pirate guards jumped at the loud but expected noise, no emotions going through their minds, just cool acceptance that the man who had killed so many of their men, their brothers in arms, would soon die. The sounds of two female screaming in agony and grief soon followed, but Oliver heard none of it.

He fell to the cool ground slowly, the leaves crinkling as his body crashed into the dirt. His body felt so cold, save for the one spot in his chest that burned like fire. Oliver gasped for air, but instead violently hacked up blood, his body trembled violently as his body went into shock.

Anthony Ivo stared at the crumpled form of Oliver Queen with a look of cool indifference, he had shot him square in the chest, a fatal hit, with no major arteries so the man could die a slow and painful death, the pest deserved it in Ivo's mind. He would die in a few minutes, but those minutes would be filled with hazy pain that would make him wish Ivo had spared him the luxury of a bullet to the head.

Blood has started to slowly pool around Oliver, its crimson liquid staining his dark blue shirt and khakis, Oliver's face started to grow paler and he continued to gasp and gurgle for breath, Ivo stepped forward, wanting to see Oliver's eyes slowly dim as the life bled out of him.

"Argh!"

And then all of a sudden Slade Wilson came charging through the dense thicket, a single punch sent a mercenary flying through the air and crashed violently into a tree. The pirates opened fire on the previously dead former ASIS agent, but the bullets seemed to do nothing to the very angry Australian man. Within seconds Slade tore through their ranks as though they were nothing but annoying gnats, but through the ensuring chaos that came Doctor Ivo disappeared into the night, the box of Mirakuru in his hands. Unaware that several syringes filled with the light amber liquid had fallen out into the underbrush that made up the clearing that was now a graveyard.

The newest captain, the other one having been killed by Ivo, took Slade head on, it was something he would later regret. With a single punch the military man punched through the man's ribcage as though it was brittle parchment, the dark-skinned man spent his last living seconds looking at Slade in shock, not seeing a man but a demon of the night.

"Shado!" Slade's gruff voice yelled out as he rushed over to the love of his life, the Chinese woman shook violently in his arms, either from shock of seeing her comrade return from the dead, or seeing Oliver die for her, no one knew.

"Oliver!" Shado screamed, shaking Slade out of his blood rage. He finally followed the woman's gaze and felt like someone had just shot another missile at him. "No…" he rushed over to his brother and cradled him in his arms, there was so much blood. "No kid, stay with me!" he placed his hands firmly against the wound, hoping to God Almighty that Oliver could survive. "Stay with us!" He yelled at Oliver, who looked like he was sleeping, save for the blood dribbling down his chin.

"Ollie!" Sara cried out as she saw his crumbled body being cradled by Slade. He looked so small and vulnerable, his breath ragged and pained, but with each passing second his breathing got shorter and shorter.

Foggy blue eyes cracked open, Oliver barely managed to register Slade cradling him. Dull recognition lit, and Oliver smiled wanly. Giving one final sigh of relief, he embraced the calming urge to fall asleep, and, despite the yells of his friends to stay awake, Oliver Queen just closed his eyes and let the world fade into nothing.


	2. Awakening

"-er…"

"Ol…"

Voices whispered in his head, their voices sounded so familiar but they were too low and soft for him to recognize the speakers. Their whispering hummed lightly in his head, like buzzing flies that just wouldn't fly away no matter how much he waved at the air. He felt something burn through his body, like liquid fire pouring through his veins, but it didn't make sense. Wasn't he dead? Or maybe the years spent being a selfish prick and later a murderer had given him a one way ticket to hell…

"Oliver…." The voices spoke again, some sounder lighter than another, while one sounded like someone who had sandpaper for a throat, why were they so familiar?

Oliver… that was his name, right?

A voice whispered in his head, suddenly the whispers vanished under the new presence, evaporating like dew in the harsh sunlight. The voice seemed to be unfamiliar to him, but also familiar too. It made his head ache even more just thinking about it. While the other whispers had been full of light, bright and cheery, this voice was guttural, dark and grim. It whispered inside his head, the whispers sounded like the hiss of a snake, the poison of its words seeping within his subconscious.

"Oliver!" A voice, no longer a whisper, roared at him. And suddenly everything came rushing back to him.

He was Oliver Queen, he was the son of Robert and Moira Queen. He had a sister, Thea. The Queen's Gambit went down, taking Sara down with it to the dark depths of the ocean. Yao Fei shot at him during their first encounter, he had been tortured by Bill Wintergreen under the orders of Edward Fryers. He had a brother in arms, Slade Wilson, and a mentor, Shado. And Ivo….

"Shado!" The cry of her name came from his lips unbidden as Oliver's eyes suddenly shot open, the harsh light of day nearly burning his eyes as he wildly searched for his friends. Oliver started to cough violently, the mere use of speech felt like he had rubbed sandpaper against his throat. Hands suddenly appeared through his blurry vision, pressing against his chest to keep him down.

"Oliver!" Shado appeared in his vision, her eyes red from crying and bags hung underneath her eyes, but there she was. Strong, brave Shado, not dead, but alive.

"Sara?" Oliver tried to groan out, but he doubted his friends understood him, he sounded like he was gurgling marbles mixed with nails, he sounded like _Slade._

"Shut up kid," the gruff Australian voice hissed in his ear. Oh, so he said that out loud. He needed water, his throat felt like a desert, it was so hard to breath. And then suddenly a water skin was handed to him, the hands helping the Queen drink. Sara stood by him, looking just as exhausted as Shado as she guided the water towards his mouth. Her fingers trembled from exertion as though she hadn't slept.

"It worked…" the astonished and awed tone of Shado exclaimed to Slade, "It actually _worked._ " Shado's smile was so warm and bright, a true smile that Oliver and Slade rarely saw since the death of her father, Shado looked at him with those warm brown eyes of hers, studying ever detail of him, looking for any wounds. Her eyes landed on his chest and laid there. Oliver looked down.

He was shirtless, his blue shirt wadded up in a crumpled ball in the far corner of the fuselage, Oliver laid on the only stretcher they had, which had survived the plane crash that brought Slade and Wintergreen here. But what he saw shocked him to his core, if he had anything in the contents of his stomach he would have thrown up in shock. On his chest was… nothing. No scars from the torture of Bill Wintergreen or from misadventures on the island, no burns layered his skin, just plain skin that looked as though nothing had ever harmed it. Even where the bullet had hit him left no trace, not a single mark. He was like a new canvas, blank… "What _happened."_ He asked the trio, his face still marred with shock and confusion.

"What do you remember?" Shado came up to him and looked him in the eyes with worry, "Oliver, what was the last thing you remember?"

"I-I…" _The gun held against his forehead. Ivo's mad grey eyes gleaming in the darkness. Shado crying, mourning for Slade, know that she was going to die. Sara sobbing. A choice… live or die. Who lives, who dies? A decision, and then…. Darkness._ "Ivo he…. He shot me. And then Slade… wait, Slade?" Oliver whipped around in his stretcher to see Slade Wilson, who was supposed to be dead in a Japanese submarine, was right next to him, alive and well.

"Hey kid," Slade nodded his head in greeting. Seeing the shock the former ASIS agent just shrugged his massive shoulders and just stated, "It's a long story."

"Oliver…" Shado suddenly looked uncertain, glancing downwards as though afraid to meet his eye. "You weren't just shot," Oliver blinked as he saw a tear drip down her face before hitting the dry ground, "You _died._ "

Oliver felt like he had just been punch in the gut by Slade in a bad mood, the air left his lungs as his heart beat rapidly, like a war drum. He could feel his heartbeat pulsing through him, making his head ache to the tempo, it sounded faster than normal, but not because of his emotions, it had been going at that rate since he had woken up.

"I-I," he didn't know what to say, the world suddenly spun as though the plane was once again falling from the sky. Steady hands steadied him and warm arms wrapped around his chest, preventing him from falling out of the stretcher. Sara looked at her nervously, looking for something in his eyes that shouldn't be there.

"It's okay, Ollie," Sara Lance promised her friend with tears in her bright blue eyes. "You're okay now. It's all going to be okay, Ivo's gone and he took the _Mirakuru_ with him, he won't be bothering us anymore."

"How can you be so sure?" The hoarse voice of Slade nearly growled at the newcomer. Slade looked at her with distrust in his cold brown eyes. His face was paler than normal, and perspiration clung to his temples despite the early morning breeze, his eyes were bloodshot, though whether from the blood that had come streaming out of his eyes or the worry and grief over losing his brother, Sara didn't know.

"Slade," Shado quickly went up to her companion and placed a placating hand on his chest, Slade looked ready to rip the stranger limb from limb, if the shaking arms and gnashed teeth were anything to go by. It seemed that Shado was the wall for Slade's desire to attack the woman, who had worked for Ivo for over a year, and to not upset the woman he loved.

Though Shado stopped him from physically doing anything, the Australian wasn't well known for being polite and beating around the bush. "How do we know that you're not still working for that bloody psychopath!" he spat out as though the mere mention of the supposed doctor was poison.

"I'm not!" Sara protested, shying away from the massive man who looked ready to snap at a moments notice.

"Oh, than I guess we can trust your word," Slade snarled out, his face turning a dark vermillion in the matter of seconds. "In case you haven't noticed, but we don't like strangers, threats, and you…" He pointed a finger at her, his hands twitching into a curled fist. "We exterminate threats."

"Slade, enough!" Shado had to actually stand in front of the man, cradling his face in her hands as she gazed up at him in concern. Slade froze at her touch and seemed to deflate under her gaze and touch, the woman he loved looked at him in worry and it made his gut twist painfully, he didn't want Shado to worry about him.

"Hey, hey, let's all just calm down," Oliver, always the mediator, cautioned to his brother and mentor from his cot. He had surprisingly stayed out of the confrontation with Sara, maybe because he still felt like hell, no he didn't feel sick, he felt angry, an anger he had never felt before. It was like an inferno, blazing within his core and burned to be unleashed. He cared for Sara, hell he had just died for her, but what if Slade was right in her being a double agent?

He trusted Slade more than anyone else, the only other coming close would of course be Shado. The two were the constants in his turbulent life, his family. He didn't want to be betrayed again, it had been hard with just the three of them, but ever since Sara had come with Ivo, their lives had exploded in their faces yet again.

Oliver, unlike Slade, was willing to give Sara a chance. Slade would mock and scoff at him, calling him soft, but that's just who Oliver was.

Oliver slowly sat up, his tight muscles aching to move, "We should patrol the island, look out for Ivo and his goons." He stated whereas Slade nodded his head in agreement, unknowingly the two injected males were thinking along the same lines, unknown to the females.

If they caught any hide or hair of Ivo Strange or even one of his underlings, they would get rid of the building anger that burned within them, they would make the men regret ever stepping foot on Lian Yu, their home.

Oliver rubbed his head tiredly, his head still ached despite the rest of his body feeling great, better than he had ever felt. He could feel the energy building up in him, the urge to move or at least do something to get rid of it on his mind, as Shado conversed with Slade the younger man heard something whisper to him.

He glanced to the left of the fuselage, thinking he had heard something over there. But he saw nothing but debris and collected supplies from the island and Fryer's men. Chalking it up to an emotional yesterday and dehydration, Oliver ignored the fact he _had_ heard something whisper to him, he just didn't know that the problem was internal not external.

"Oliver and I can go up the mountain to get a better view," Slade offered while Shado crossed her arms in defiance.

"No. You two need your rest," she said with a look that dared them to cross her. Shado may be smaller than them by at least a hundred pounds and several inches, but even gruff manly Slade was cowed under her steeled gaze.

"Fine," he grunted as he sat down on one of the crates. The tension in the air disappearing as Slade talked to Oliver, their conversation whispered and murmured, the two woman couldn't hear them.

Shado walked over to the motion sensor they had stolen from Fryer's camp, Shado had found an extra battery when scoping out the remains of the mercenaries camp, to her relief there were no signs of anyone coming to the fuselage, they were safe for now. Sara had told them that Ivo had used too many missiles when firing upon them, and judging by the pirate-friendly waters he would most likely conserve his ammo, that is if he hadn't left by now.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye Sara walking up to her, noticing the way she walked, as though some burden had been placed upon her shoulders. She looked like hell, her eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep and grief, her hair a tangled mess, but then again they all looked terrible. But Sara looked scared and nervous as she came up to the Chinese woman.

"Shado, can I talk to you?" Sara whispered to the Chinese archer, glancing at Slade and Oliver as they conversed. "I need to talk to you, _alone._ " She nodded her head at the males as she stressed the last word.

Shado didn't know too much about Sara Lance, her arrival had been unexpected and abrupt, literally appearing out of the blue in front of Oliver. Oliver had dated her older sister, Laurel, the girl in the photo that Oliver always kept on his person and tended to taking care of the feeble paper like a monk to a sacred relic. But Sara had only been on the boat because Oliver had invited her, and Shado knew what type of man, no boy, Oliver Queen had been prior to coming into this purgatory.

Shado didn't trust her, the fact that she had been allied with Ivo, who had killed Oliver _and_ Slade not lost on her. After years on this island under the guard and watch of Fryers and his henchmen, Shado had only come to love and trust two people, Oliver and Slade. Both of them had died the other dead, their hearts stopped beating and their lungs stopped breathing, they had died and left her alone.

Until Slade came into the clearing with the rage of a berserker, killing the men easily, too easily. And then Oliver died, bleeding out on the jungle floor with a smile on his lips, but with a syringe of _Mirakuru_ found, left by the hasty retreat of one Ivo Strange, but they had acted fast. Slade and Shado needed no discussion between them about the _Mirakuru,_ they were too close and knew each other inside and out. If the _Mirakuru_ worked for Slade, why wouldn't it work for Oliver?

Sara had stood by, still in shock of seeing her former employer murder Ollie, but snapped out of it when she learned that he could still be saved, Sara would do anything to bring him back, they had only just found each other. So without a word of argument, without a moment of hesitation or worry, they had injected the archer with the amber liquid.

The next few minutes were tense and the longest Sara and the others had ever experienced, three pairs of eyes watching the still form, waiting for any hint of life. Any sign that their lover, their brother, their friend, the man who made the ultimate sacrifice, could come back into their lives.

Oliver Queen came back to life screaming bloody murder, the action reminiscent of when Slade had been injected, tears of blood running down his cheeks as though his very soul wept for the condemned man. His body started to spasm violently, Slade grabbed Shado and held her back away from the flailing arms, but Sara stood by her friend and fellow castaway, her eyes never leaving his. The fact that Oliver was moving, breathing, living, made the party know that they had made the right call, but they knew that it wasn't over.

After Oliver had screamed his throat raw and bloody, his impeccably white teeth covered in a fine layer of spittle and blood, the castaway suddenly stopped his spasms, lying as still as he had been when Ivo had shot him. The only sign of life within him was the heavy exhale and inhale of his chest, his heart had started to beat rapidly, too fast despite the fact his body was calm. It was only later would Shado realize that Slade's heart beat at the same tempo, far too fast for a normal human being to withstand for such long periods.

Shado collapsed to the ground, Slade quickly followed as he wrapped his strong arms around her, he breathed heavily as he leaned against her, her head nestled in the crook of his neck while his head laid on top of her own. Shado was a warrior at heart, a trained killer, she was a female Slade (according to Oliver) but more badass (yet again Oliver's exact words), but even she needed time to let the fact that her two companions had died before her eyes and then come back to life thanks to some mysterious Japanese World War Two superhuman serum. It had been a long day…

Slade had carried the unconscious form of Oliver all the way to the fuselage, Shado had protested, afraid that Slade was still too weak and Oliver too injured, but when she went to bandage his wound halfway up the mountain, only smooth skin remained where the bullet had once been. She found the very bullet, covered in Oliver's dried blood, laying in Oliver's shirt pocket, somehow it had left his chest, the _Mirakuru_ truly was a miracle.

Oliver didn't wake up until the moon and stars left, only until the first rays of warm sunlight stretched across the darkness of Lian Yu did he finally start to awaken. Shado and Slade were still weary of their new guest, but Sara didn't say anything to the two killers, understanding how precarious her standing with them was.

Sara lead the woman to the edge of the clearing that sheltered the destroyed cargo plane, Sara looked nervous, her stance fidgety like that of a bird preparing to fly away. "We have to talk about Oliver and Slade," she stated pointedly as she glanced back at the fuselage.

"What?" Shado asked in confusion, Slade and Oliver looked fine to her. She was the type of person to count her blessings and the fact that all three of them made it out alive from Ivo's deranged crossfire was something she thanked to the gods, she was willing to ignore the fact that her friends had been dead for longer than the allotted time that doctors stated a human being could go without oxygen in their lungs and blood flowing through their veins.

"You know what I'm talking about, Shado." Sara whispered harshly, which surprised Shado. Sara had come off to her as a bit timid, having been thrust into a world of strangers and dangers at every turn, the girl had been shy and reserved, but now all Shado saw was steel in her eyes. "They were injected with the _Mirakuru_."

"What does that have to do with anything," Shado whispered back just as harshly. They were injected, the Miracle had brought them back to life, brought them all back together as they should be, it was over, in the past, and Shado intended to keep it in the past.

Sara glanced back at the fuselage, as though afraid that Oliver and Slade could hear them from a hundred meters away. "Look, the Japanese they experimented on hundreds of men, working to develop the _Mirakuru_. I've read their research, the people who died after being injected, they were the lucky ones…" Sara swallowed back the bile that threatened to rise in her throat, remembering the old reports of scientists now long dead, as well as their secrets. "The ones who survived, they were deformed. In their bones or their minds. They became someone else."

Shado looked at the Lance, who looked so scared and tired, and glanced over to where her comrades where. "I don't believe you," she stated, Sara looked like she had been punched in the gut. "Those records are from the last World War, they could be faulty, or you misread them… Oliver and Slade, they're still the same." _They have to be._

"Shado, they _died._ They were killed, Slade took a missile to the face and Ollie… Ollie gave up his life for ours." Last nights events played in both of their minds unbidden, Ivo pressing the gun against their heads, Oliver sacrificing his life for theirs, Oliver getting shot and dying, Oliver coming back to life by a super serum a hundred years old.

The master archer looked away, the thought of Oliver and Slade being anything but Oliver and Slade seemed impossible. Oliver was the weak link of the three, with Slade being a former agent of the Australian Army and Shado having learned to fight since she could first walk, but he was just as important as Slade with his brawn and Shado with her heart, he wasn't the smartest of them but he always had their best interests at heart. Every day he grew stronger and stronger, he had arrived to the island a caterpillar that everyone thought would turn into a moth, ugly and dark, but as time changed so did he, into a beautiful butterfly that would defy all judgment and condescension, though he might not appreciate the analogy Shado had given him. And Slade was… well Slade.

To think of them as anything less seemed incomprehensible.

"Ollie mentioned that you were pre-med before you were brought here," Sara stated, her arms crossed.

The woman nodded her head slowly, not understanding where exactly this was heading. She had applied in field medicine, not psychology. She couldn't know if anything was wrong with her friends. All she had to fall back on was the faith that Oliver and Slade were made of tougher stuff.

 _But how strong is the Mirakuru?_ The question, unwanted in her mind, whispered in her ear, trying to spread doubt in her heart and mind, but Shado still had faith that everything could resume to its normal pace, though a bit differently.

"Have you ever heard of Phineas Gage?" Sara asked, unaware of the older woman's troubled thoughts.

The name was familiar, a memory playing at the edge of her subconscious. Her teacher back in Beijing had mentioned an American with that name along with something about a head injury. Suddenly she remembered, "He was a foreman on the American Railroads, there was an accident... bad handling with volatile explosives, and an iron rod went through his skull. He survived despite the odds." She recited what she knew, which was probably filled with gaps and inconsistencies.

Sara nodded and hummed in agreement, "The iron tamping rod went straight through his skull, and destroyed nearly all of his left frontal lobe. He survived, but something radically changed in him. Reports were given out that, before the accident, Gage was an even-tempered man, well liked by his peers. But once that rod went through him, his behavior seemingly turned over night until he was a complete stranger to his former friends and family. Aside from being called the luckiest man alive, Gage got a new nickname from his friends. 'No Longer Gage', that's what they called him. He turned into a completely different person that he wasn't even recognizable." She looked at Shado pointedly, "I know that none of them had rods shoved through their skulls, but there has to be some side effects of the _Mirakuru_ if you don't believe they're any different, not to mention the small fact that they died and came back, people get serious PTSD from trauma, but those two died violent deaths and came back to life through a dangerous medicine." She shook her head, "Surely you agree with me, right?" She sounded desperate. "Something might have gone wrong. What if something in them is gone or, I don't know, twisted?"

Shado closed her eyes, breathing in deeply to stop the fear from setting into her heart. She tried to process this information, but it was so hard to even begin to want to believe. Sara shouldn't be trusted, Shado shouldn't even be listening to her. But Oliver trusted Sara. He had even died for her. If only for Oliver, despite his bleeding heart, would Shado give a small inkling of trust to this woman that had appeared before them. She was weary of this woman, especially if Oliver still had some feelings for the blonde. Oliver was easily swayed by his morality, and Sara hadn't proved herself trustworthy. Out of the three of them, Oliver was the easiest of them to gain his trust. The younger man was more innocent than Slade and Shado, he still saw the world for its bright lights that lived within people, not the all consuming darkness that hid in the hearts of all. Shado would not let him lose that.

_She knows more about the Mirakuru than we'll ever know._

And her friends currently had the serum running through their veins. Oliver and Slade had _died_. They had come back, yes, but what if they had come back wrong? Shady did not want to believe that the gruff Slade and lovable Oliver she knew and loved more than anything in the world could ever change from the men they are now. But what if they needed help? It would be selfish of her to ignore a helping hand, even if it came from Ivo's former prisoner. Who knew what side effects could occur, and if Shado would even know how to spot them?

"I'll keep an eye on them," she promised the American as they turned back towards the direction they came. Their private discussion was over. "Oliver seems to trust you, and for that I will listen to what you have to say.  Remember, however, that Slade doesn't trust you. In all fairness, I don't trust you either." 

"I understand," Sara whispered as they began to walk back to the crashed remains of the cargo plane. "I know that you don't trust me, why should you? I'm a stranger to you. It seems all I've done since I first step foot on this island is cause you harm." Her tone was pitifully somber.

"In time you can earn it, but remember that trust once lost can never be regained." The female archer advised with what Slade had deemed her 'psychological mumbo jumbo' but as the two got nearer to the rest of their group, Shado suddenly grabbed her shoulder with a grip of iron, Sara twirled around to see the cold eyes of a killer staring into the depths of her soul. "I want this to be clear, if you ever break the small amount of trust I have given you, if you turn out to be working for the other side, you won't have Slade to worry about. Because I will hunt you down and put an arrow in you, I will protect my family to my last breath… don't forget that, Sara Lance." The threat given and delivered, Shado walked back into the plane, where Oliver and Slade immediately stopped their conversation when they saw the look on her face.

"She can stay with us," Shado nodded her head to Sara, who had entered the plane by then. Oliver visibly relaxed, happy that he was somewhat of help to the person he had condemned. His bleeding heart was both a curse and a blessing at times.

"What about Ivo?" Oliver asked, as soon as he mentioned the deranged doctor he felt that incontrollable rage surging within him, besides him Slade stiffened at the mentioning of the man that had tried to break up their family.

"He should leave," Sara assured them, Ivo had his Miracle, what else could he possibly want? "He won't bother us again."

It was ironic that at that exact moment their radio crackled, the signal fuzzy and crackling at every interval. _"Sara?"_ The sound of one Anthony Strange crackled in the ancient radio. _"Sara are you there?"_

Said woman turned ashen, her face a dull white that looked as though she had risen from the grave. Slade scowled and looked ready to bare his teeth at the innocent radio, like that of a wild animal against an enemy. Shado looked at Sara with a look none could place, wariness set within her youthful features.

And Oliver….

Oliver felt rage like he had never known to exist course through him, a dark sickening feeling that rose from the pit of his stomach and spread to the tips of his hands and toes, his heartbeat quickened as he felt the rage, an emotion that had always scared him when he had first arrived here on this hell, but this time something was different.

The rage was all consuming, a force unknown to mankind, his heart seemed to shudder and jolt under its pressure, his fingers shook as though he had been injected with the Miracle yet again. Red flashed behind his eyes, the crimson blanketing his eyesight in its lust for release, before Oliver would have been terrified of the emotions that were currently coursing through him like the raging ocean, but now something was different. He didn't shy away from the scalding hot rage, didn't fear it, didn't try to channel it, he didn't even try one of Shado's breathing exercises made specifically to calm emotions, specifically rage, he didn't try to stop it. He didn't try to stop the rage coursing through him, whispering to him to go find Ivo and make him pay, to _kill_ him.

Instead Oliver Queen welcomed it.

 


	3. Infection

" _Sara, I know that you're listening. Answer me. This is very simple Sara, I know that you and your new friends have the Mirakuru, you know that I will lay waste to this entire island to get it… It doesn't have to be that way, all I want is the serum, in exchange I promise you and your friends safe passage off this island, I promise. Within ten days you and your friends can be making port in Shanghai, the alternative is that I send my men into the jungle and take the serum from you, they will be under orders not to kill any of you, instead you will remain alive and allow me to indulge in my… scientific curiosity."_  Ivo's voice was smooth, like that of a polished stone, unlike the madman he had been when he had demanded Oliver to choose between Shado and Sara, when Oliver had taken the other route and sacrificed himself.

Oliver glanced at his family, Slade was gripping his machete with a tight grip, his eyes dark as he looked at the radio. Shado looked at the radio with distaste, hearing Ivo was definitely something she wished to never hear again, she shook her head slowly as she listened. Sara was pale as she listened to Ivo's offer, but she didn't look to be sold on it, which was a relief to Oliver.

 _Ivo and his choices…_  He thought to himself with a frown, the rage still burning within him like an inferno.  _But even though he claims of peaceful exchanges, in the end we'll just have a bullet between the eyes, or worse._  He looked at Slade, his brother, and Shado, his mentor and lover. The thought of Ivo getting their hands on them was terrifying to the archer, Ivo had already killed Slade once and nearly killed Shado right after, he was a threat to his friends.

What was it that Slade always preached about threats?

 _Exterminate them…_  A voice that didn't sound like him whispered in his ear, the voice as smooth as honey, but reminded him of the voices that plagued him when he slept, the voice of the monsters that ran amuck in his memories and nightmares.

Ivo was a threat, and all four of them had learned what happened when Ivo gave them a choice… that would never happen again, Oliver wouldn't allow it.

The crackle of static suddenly stopped as Ivo cut the communication as he stayed in his lair, his freighter filled with dozens of armed men and even more prisoners and, possibly, scientific experiments. He knew, he had been there.

"I thought you said Ivo was gone," Slade rasped out, his throat still not healed from the screaming when he had been injected, add in his accent and it was nearly impossible to understand him. He held the knife dangerously as though wondering whether or not to just stab the girl, grab his guns and go find their resident nut job.

"H-He should of," Sara exclaimed, her face still pale as a corpse. "He should of left… why hasn't he left?" The last part was whispered, not to them but to herself.

"He said that we have the Mirakuru," Shado stated as she switched off the radio, making sure that Ivo couldn't contact them and possibly trace them. "But he took the box filled with it, didn't he?" She had remembered Ivo fleeing from the raging soldier that Slade had been in that clearing, the ease of how Slade had killed those men still haunted her, it was unnatural, it showed that the Mirakuru hadn't just saved him, it had changed him.

" _The ones who survived, they were deformed. In their bones or their minds. They became someone else."_

Shado glanced at Sara as she remembered their earlier conversation, the thought sickened her, it scared her. And few things could scare the expert fighter, very few.

Oliver began to piece it together, "Maybe he dropped the box when Slade showed up, or maybe he just wants something better…" He clenched his hands as he realized what Ivo meant when he wanted their Mirakuru, "He wants Slade and I." He announced, the downward gaze of Sara was all he needed to know that he had hit the nail. "We have the Miracle running through our veins, we're the perfect specimens for him to analyze… or dissect." He spat out, his form shaking in rage at the thought of Ivo getting him and Slade, only to take them apart piece by piece, trying to see what made them truly tick.

"We're not taking up his offer, not unless we want to be his personal play things," Slade grunted out as he stood up and inspected the radio. "How does he even know our frequency?" He grunted out as he inspected the metal device, looking for a bug or something.

Oliver looked down guiltily, seeing as he had used Ivo's radio when he had been captured, though he had done so to protect them.

"I'll head back to the clearing and see if I can find the Mirakuru, I'm the best tracker." Shado volunteered, the last piece being directed at Slade who didn't like the idea of the young archer going back to the clearing where she almost died in. Where their family had almost died in.

Oliver nodded his head in agreement, if anyone could find that serum it would be Shado. Sara spoke up, "Should we set up defenses? Ivo's spent years looking for the Mirakuru, and now that it's within his reach, he's grown desperate. And desperate men do desperate things."

"The kid and I will do it," Slade gruffly volunteered, striding over and grapping the motion sensor, which thankfully showed no signs of incoming assailants. He wordlessly handed it over to Shado, "You'll need it more than us," he patted his assault rifle fondly. "Bullets are better than arrows."

The young woman rolled her eyes at that, but nodded her thanks. "Sara, you can come with me." She stated as Sara didn't really know what to do, the group before her was so intimate that they seemed to have wordless conversations.

"Be careful," Slade said to the two women, though his eyes were stuck on the darker haired woman before him, a look in his eye that none could place. Slade blinked and the gruff Australian was back to normal, "C’mon kid, let's see how Ivo likes the idea of TNT."

The four then set off, each in different pairs. Shado and Sara searching for the elusive Mirakuru, whilst Oliver and Slade prepared for the awaiting bloodbath. Traps and trenches would have to be set. They wouldn't let Ivo catch them off guard again, now they had the advantage and they were going to win this war. They had to.

* * *

 

The headache still hadn't gone away, and now it seemed to get worse. He kept hearing things that weren't there, like an annoying buzzing sound that just wouldn't go away. He knew that Shado was watching him, and even Slade was under her sharp gaze. Oliver knew that something was wrong, whenever he had the smallest bit of anger, whether if he stubbed his toe on a protruding rock he hadn't seen or realizing that most of his shirts, which were few by the way, were covered in either tears or dried blood, but when he felt those emotions it suddenly kicked itself into high gear, he had wanted to punch someone,  _anything_.

He had been alone by the riverbed when the rage overtook him, Slade having gone ahead to set some traps. He didn't know if it was the stress of dying and coming back, Slade dying and coming back, Ivo threatening his home and comrades yet again, or the fact that the  _Amazo_  was still docked on their shores, Oliver just needed something to take his unrelenting anger upon.

He, in a rash move that was probably not the smartest of ideas, punched the first thing that came into his sight. A large rock formation that easily towered over him and was twice as thick, he should have bruised a couple of knuckles or broken his hand when flesh met stone.

He didn't expect the stone to implode under his fist, creating a large crater as chunks of rubble rained down into the riverbed, the fragments being swiftly carried away by the strong currents. With shaky hands he looked them over, there wasn't even a cut on them, only a fine layer of dust from the rock. He placed his right hand, palm outwards, on the cool stone, he inhaled deeply, scared of what would happen and lightly pressed down, the stone began to crack and crumble until he pulled away as though the rock had burned him, within the hardened stone was the imprint of his hand, cracks spreading its way outwards like an intricate spider web.

"What's happening to me?" Oliver asked himself as he collapsed to his knees, his hands threatening to rip out his golden locks in fear and anger, he was always angry now. His broad form started to shake and shiver as Oliver felt the rage overtake him again, his eyesight darkened by red crimson as the urge to hurt something overcame him, but it was darker than the previous feelings, he wanted to main, to kill-

"Oliver!"

The sound of Slade broke the confused man out of his thoughts, he easily heard Slade coming towards him as he walked over the pebbles that littered the shore, had Oliver always been able to hear Slade coming near him from such a distance?

Sure enough the burly form of Slade Wilson soon came into his sights, his dark brown eyes darting around the clearing looking for dangers and exits, though he relaxed ever so slightly when he saw nobody but Oliver and plenty of exits to choose from.

Slade raised a brow as he approached, his gloved hand gently running through the destroyed part of the rock formation, he glanced at the remaining shards and the dust coating Oliver's knuckles.

Oliver quickly squatted near the water and sunk his hands into the flowing water, splashing some of the cool droplets against his sweated brow as though trying to convince Slade that he had just come to wash his face and hands.

"What happened to the rock?" Slade asked gruffly as he squatted down besides the blonde, taking out his machete still stained with blood from Ivo's men and set to work cleaning the blade least he wanted his favored weapon to rust and become useless.

Oliver shrugged.

The former ASIS member snorted at that; Oliver had always been a terrible liar. "I thought we agreed to never lie to one another, kid." He stated as ran a finger down the flat of his machete, looking for any signs of rust or corrosion.

"When did we agree to that?" Oliver asked as he thought back to the past several weeks, never remembering that certain event.

Slade shrugged his massive shoulders, "When we became allies, when we became friends…" he paused as he looked out over the river, his mind a million miles away. "When we became a team. You, Shado, and I."

Oliver looked down at that, his vibrant blue eyes dark as he pondered on that. "Slade, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Oliver swallowed nervously, before letting out a bitter laugh. "For being a screw up, like I always am. I found that stupid hōzen, I took it from those Japanese soldiers, I ignored your advice when it came to loving someone on this stupid island, I raced back to the plane when it was being bombarded by Ivo, I'm the reason why you had half your face burned off. Ivo didn't kill you, Slade, I  _killed_  you." Oliver admitted bitterly as he sat on the bank, his hands trembling as he looked at the dark, murky water.

Slade grabbed his apprentice by the shoulders and roughly hauled him to his feet in the matter of two seconds. "Do  _not_  give me that bullshit, kid." He snarled out as he shook Oliver, the billionaire might have been several inches taller than the Australian but Slade was much stronger and made it look like he was shaking a rag doll.

"You listen to me, and listen good." He jabbed a finger at Oliver, his finger poking him in the chest roughly. "I didn't stop you from taking that stupid piece of rock, I'm the one who is hypocritical when it comes to women, I may have followed you to the fuselage, Oliver. But it was my choice,  _mine._ Shado was in danger, of course I would come after her." He said the last part quietly, no more than a mutter.

Oliver remembered something, something that had been forgotten during this hectic day and previous night. "Y-You love Shado, don't you?" he whispered to his greatest friend, his mentor, his brother in all but blood.

Slade looked down, not ashamed of the statement but unwilling to discuss it. "I do." He whispered back, his voice hoarser than before, watery and desperate. "I love her so much."

"Why didn't you say anything? You told me that having attachments to people here on Lian Yu was dangerous, you told me to not listen to my heart and be with Shado." Oliver asked with wide eyes, the very fact that Slade had emotions concerning someone that wasn't anger or the urge to punch the living daylights out of them was… surprising.

Slade chuckled at that statement, a low bitter laugh that spoke of pain hidden within the man who had to watch as his student wooed and loved the woman he so desperately wished to tell his true feelings to. He had watched with a heavy and nearly broken heart at the lovers' interactions, wishing that it was him that was loved by Shado and not the kid. It was vain and stupid of him to feel that jealousy, but Slade was human, and humans were always broken and controlled by love.

"Why? Because Shado loves you, kid." His voice would have broken had he not been able to hold in that pain for so long, his heart still ached and the pain had yet to dull after so many weeks.

"She loves you too, Slade." Oliver stated, seeing his mentor in a new light.

Slade's fingers curled into tight fists, the clenched fists shaking ever so slightly. "But not in the way I want her too." He rasped out, his bright brown orbs dull with the pain that followed by heartbreak.

The archer glanced downwards at the murky water, as though trying to find an answer within the currents, but all he saw was the warped reflections. "Things have changed Slade," he argued. "I don't think Shado views me that way either, and maybe I don't as well." He glanced up at the sky, eyes looking at the wide blue sky that seemed to mock them. "I love Shado, Slade. But I don't think we're  _in_ love, not anymore." He glanced at his mentor who was listening deeply.

"Slade, it's not my decision if Shado and I stay together, if we have a happily ever after castaway style. Shado has a choice in this as well, and I know that she hasn't forgotten what you said in that sub. Shado isn't an object for the two of us to fight her, if she even considered we thought of her that way she'd murder us with her father's bow and hide our bodies somewhere in the forest," Oliver smiled wanly, knowing that Shado was perhaps the strongest person he knew, not even Slade could compare when the master archer was involved.

"… Thanks kid."

That was it, a gruff murmur that Oliver could barely hear. But since it was Slade that was probably the most heartfelt moment the two would ever share, Oliver may be a bit of an emotional wreck but Slade was just a hard ass with a heart of stone, or so he had previously thought.

"Oh, by the way…" Oliver didn't even have time to blink as Slade suddenly whirled around, facing the large rock formation that Oliver had previously punched, and swung a fist at the solid rock. With the same ease Slade tore through the solid rock, creating a crater just as big, maybe even bigger, as Oliver's.

Oliver chocked on air as he saw that, with boggled eyes he stared at Slade who looked at him with a raised brow. "I'm assuming that," he jerked a thumb at Oliver's crater, "Was you."

Oliver just nodded dumbly, but inside his heart felt as though it had lifted. Whatever was happening to him was happening to Slade too.

"Whatever this serum did to us, it worked." The older man stated as he lightly brushed off some of the dust from his knuckles, Slade sat down besides his protégée besides the bank. "But we weren't cured, kid… We're  _infected_."

The way the Australian said it, the way he spat the word out as though it were something disgusting and vile, made Oliver wonder if there was even anything that could be done.

“Slade… are we broken?” He asked.

Roughs hands grabbed his shoulders and shook hard enough to give him whiplash. “Don’t say that,” Slade breathed out, “Don’t say that. We’re not broken, kid.”

Oliver gave a weak grin. “We’re just a bit fucked up?”

Slade’s chuckle sounded more akin to a wet sob, but the man smiled. "Oliver… Ivo needs to die."  The words were a guttural growl in the back of his throat.

The Oliver of before would have winced at the mention of killing, but that Oliver had died on Lian Yu. His heart was still there, but barely beating. But his heart didn't beat for the protection of Ivo, but yearned for the chance to kill the man who had dared to come to his home, and threaten  _his_  family.

"He's got a freighter…" Oliver noted, but he leaned forward in anticipation when Slade got that look on his face. It was a look of a leader, and Oliver was willing to follow Slade Wilson to the gates of Hell and beyond.

The smirk on Slade's face didn't belong on Slade's face, it looked like someone had taken an inhumane facial feature and placed it on him, but Oliver couldn't help but mimic the smirk when he heard what Slade said next.

"We've got a missile launcher."

* * *

 

Shado realized that something may have been wrong with her friends when she and Sara stumbled upon them loading up a military standard long-range missile launcher.

Slade was angrily punching in coordinates on the monitor, a dark scowl on his tanned facial features. Oliver stood beside his mentor, watching the flickering letters and numbers with his hands gripping his bow. The Queen's face scared the two women, normally Oliver had an easy going smile or at least a grin, but now only a look of grim determination, like that of a soldier preparing for a battle, as he handled his bow as though preparing to charge to the beach and shoot Ivo in his deranged head and end this nightmare once and for all.

"What the _hell are you two doing!?_ " Shado screamed out in shock as she saw that they were mostly likely seconds away from shooting the missile at the freighter, taking their only way off of Lian Yu with them.

The two injected men jerked at the sound of her voice, scrambling back as they saw the two racing towards them. "Get back!" Slade yelled at the two with an urgent wave of his hand.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sara screamed as they got nearer, completely ignoring Slade's command. "Do you have any idea of what you two are doing?!"

"We're going to send Ivo to the bottom of the ocean," Oliver yelled back, the familiar rage swelling within him, how did they not get it? Ivo was a threat to them, and they always exterminated their threats. How was a military long-range missile any different from his and Shado and Oliver's arrows, or Slade's bullets? Sure it was a bit of an overkill, but Ivo seemed to be the type who was a cockroach, both in terms of personality and that it would take more than an arrow to keep him down.

"And take our only way off this island with him?" Sara demanded.

Slade snapped at that, the rage that had been building within Oliver having also been building within him, but Slade was a bit more of a loose cannon than Oliver. He grabbed his firearm and held it against Sara's forehead, his finger itching to pull the trigger and get rid of what he deemed a loose end. Sara froze as the same thing that had happened two nights previously wash over her; only it was Slade now instead of Ivo with a gun aimed at her head.

"Back up girlie, back up!" He roared at the blonde, his form shaking in violent rage.

"Hey!" Oliver screamed at his comrade, his bright blue eyes alight in rage, a fiery rage that didn't belong with the younger man, it was an inhuman emotion on an innocent human. Suddenly Slade was thrown to the ground, having been tackled by Oliver as he leapt from the missile launcher and rammed against the surly Australian with the force of a rampaging bull.

When Slade crashed to the ground, neither males noticed that the ground had cracked around them, only that suddenly that they had found a target to get rid of the burning rage from within them. With a roar like that of a primal animal trapped, Slade threw Oliver off of him, the blonde soared backwards several feet and crashed into the ground, clouds of dirt flying into the air.

Oliver barely had time to move his head to the side as Slade appeared above him, having crossed large distance in the blink of an eye, Slade attempted to punch the man's face, though instead of hitting flesh his gloved hand connected with the hardened dirt, his clenched fist tore through the earth as though it was nothing but wet parchment, creating a large hole.

Oliver acted upon instinct and the anger still flowing through him, clouding his normally peaceful mind in a fiery crimson haze, all he wanted was to beat out his frustrations on someone, and Slade was the closest person to his fists. The fact that he had held a gun to Sara's face had made something in his chest react, no one would hurt his friends again, not if he had anything to say about it.

His fist slammed into Slade's face, he heard the cracking of bone that broke under the force of his fist, it felt so  _good._  Slade reared back instinctively, his nose broken and blood immediately dripping droplets of crimson blood. A quick but heavy punch to the gut sent the solider flying to the ground.

His hearing seemed to deafen, the roaring sound of his accelerated heartbeat beating with the sound of thunder echoing. He dodged to the left as Slade's fist came near his face, he attempted to punch the former ASIS agent, but Slade grabbed his arm and with a mighty haul sent him careening into a tree, making the tree bark splinter into a thousand pieces.

His back should have broken under the force of the throw, hell neither he nor Slade should be able to pick up fully grown men and toss them around like they were pebbles held in the palm of their hand, but any rational thoughts were gone from the men who had been injected by the Miracle, only darkness, anger, and rage was left.

Slade appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, the faded strands of cotton fabric ripping under the strain, the former agent's gloved fists were a blur as he pounded the young billionaire into a bloody pulp, his face breaking but healing almost instantly as Slade's knuckles left his face, the sound of the crunching of bone as it broke and mended almost instantly was the only horrific sounds in that clearing, Slade continued to rain blows upon his protégé, his tanned face flushed a dark vermillion.

Oliver's hand caught Slade's fist, his knuckles white as his grip tightened enough to bend steel, but Slade didn't feel the pain, only aware of the shot to the jaw that sent him reeling.

 _The Mirakuru… what did it do to them?_  Shado thought in horror as she saw her friends fight one another as though instead of them being brothers they were mortal enemies.

Oliver was aware that Sara and Shado were yelling,  _pleading_  with them to stop their fighting. Shado appeared behind Slade and grabbed his arm, Slade swung around instinctively, ready to pummel the person foolish enough to sneak up behind him.

Shado just looked at him sadly as she clung to his arm, trying to pull it down and away from Oliver, but despite her great strength, Slade was stronger and it was like trying to bend solid steel in her grip. As Oliver prepare to deliver his own blow to his mentor and teacher, someone grabbed his arm as well.

"Slade!"

But when Shado spoke, or more like screamed at him, Slade, the  _real_  Slade, blinked as though torn from heavy trance. He glanced at his fist, bloody and stinging, to Shado's look of pure horror and terror, and finally to his brother in all but blood.

Slade's eyes widened in horror and panic, scrambling backwards from the form of his apprentice as though he had been scalded. He held his bloodied fist close to his chest, as though he could hide it from the world. Words couldn't describe the look of horror in Slade's eyes as he gazed upon Oliver, who was still panting from the assault and watched with enhanced sight as he saw the broken bones in his face snap back into place, the bones he had broken.

Oliver still looked ready to pounce on Slade, but Sara's words stopped him as though he had been shot yet again.

"Ollie…. Calm down… Ollie please!"

Oh, how Oliver didn't want to calm down, the rage still flowed through him like the ocean currents, it was cold and oppressive but so expansive it seemed to stretch on forever. Oliver didn't want to let it go. He stepped forward, pulling the struggling form of Sara Lance as though her weight was nothing but air.

"Ollie… think about Thea and your mom! They wouldn't want this!"

That made him stop, Sara nearly running into him from the sudden stop of motion.

Thea…

_A small girl with chestnut locks was grinning up at him with an impish smile, her cheeks round and her dimples deep. "Ollie! Ollie! Ollie!" she would sing out to him as she bounded in circles around him, showing the true and accurate nickname of Speedy. "I love you big bro! You better bring me back something cool from China like… uh," she tilted her head, her tweenage mind fast at work. "Ooh! I know!" Oliver didn't pay much attention afterwards, he just noticed how happy Thea was with him, how she didn't see him for the massive screw up, to her he was just Ollie._

The simple thought of his baby sister quelled the darkness that raged within him, as though Thea's sunny personality took away the shadow's that stained her older brother's soul.

The anger and hatred, strong enough to send him into a bloody frenzy, was shoved in a chained corner, but the chains were weak and durable, but he didn't think about that. He thought of his beloved sister, he thought of his mother, his family that he had left two years ago, the family that was waiting for him to come back home.

The young Queen heir collapsed upon the dusty ground, finally noticing the small and large craters of upturned earth and rubble that had been created during the sudden fight that looked more like a death match between devils. His hands were shaking violently as he wrapped them around his chest, his breath was ragged and his form shuddered as he fought to keep control. He glanced upwards at Slade, only to see the same fear that burned within him in the Australian's brown orbs.

"W-What's happening to us?" Slade rasped out to the two females, still gripping his fist to his chest, his face was pale and his eyes bloodshot.

Shado looked at Slade in concern, the same concern being directed at Oliver as well. "We don't know…" the archer whispered to the man who had told her he loved her, she wrapped her arms around his bulky form, trying to quell the shuddering fear that burned within Slade. She glanced over at Oliver as she spoke, strength pooling into her tone as she looked upon the two injected men, "But no matter what happens, you won't be going through this alone."

The declaration seemed to calm the two down, if only slightly.

The sound of an automated beeping broke everyone out of their trance, the red flash of the missile launcher brought their attention to the automated military weapon. The coordinates had been set, the missiles ready to be unloaded upon the nightmare that was the  _Amazo._

"Slade… we can't do this," Shado whispered in his ear, but everyone in the vicinity heard her anyway. Shado looked so tired, her form burdened by the unknown fate to the two most important people in her life. "We can't destroy the freighter." Slade wanted to argue, to bluster out a disagreement, but Slade was tired too.

"Don't you want to see Joe again?"

The thought of his son made Slade tense. It had been nearly a decade since Slade had been marooned on this Purgatory, nearly a decade since he had seen his sweet spoken little boy, did Joe even remember him? Or had Adeline found another man who his son would call father?

"And Oliver… Don't you want to see Thea and your mother?"

Oliver looked down in shame, realizing how he and Slade had nearly blown up their only hope of getting off of Lian Yu, the thought of Ivo dying in a fiery blaze had been their goal, to send that death trap to the bottom of the ocean. But he would rather go back on that death trap than stay on the one trap capable of destroying them.

He would do it. Oliver would take the freighter by himself if he had too. But Oliver wasn't alone, not anymore.

He had Slade, Shado and even Sara. They were what kept him safe and loved. But despite that, Oliver knew that he would cast aside his humanity and kill everyone aboard the  _Amazo_  if it meant they could finally leave this island alive.

He would do it for Slade, so he could hold his son in his arms again. He would do it for Shado, so she could return to the life she had led before Fryer's men had kidnapped her to be a hostage. He would do it for Sara, so she could see Laurel and her family again.

Oliver cared about these three, they were his family and though Ivo had tried to destroy it with his mad visions of grandeur and his horrific ultimatums.

Ivo had tried to destroy them. To rip apart Slade and Oliver's bond of brotherhood, to shred the loyalty he held to Shado, to obliterate his chance of redemption with Sara.

Ivo had  _failed_.

 

* * *

 

They huddled close to the fire, the kindling occasionally spatting as the sap meet the fiery embers, but other than that the clearing was as silent as a graveyard. The man who had been shot down by Ivo and his missiles was leaning against the metal body of his small plane, his body cooling as death had already taken him from the cruel world.

Sara wasn't looking at him, she instead continued to gaze at the small photo the man had given her, the picture of his twelve year old daughter, a twelve year old orphan. She was looking at the picture with such tenderness that it reminded Oliver of when he had first arrived on Lian Yu, Laurel's picture his only connection to the outside world that wasn't trying to kill him, not even Slade counted as when he was trained he was still ninety percent sure Slade was trying to kill him with his drills.

Laurel's photo was back in the fuselage, tenderly hidden within the messy confines of the downed plane, too scared of it being destroyed whenever Oliver ran into trouble or was getting shot at, either one happened way too often. He realized that he hadn't looked at the fading parchment since he had realized that Sara was alive. Beforehand he had always looked upon her face, immortalized within that photo, before he went to sleep, as though her face could ward off the nightmares that plagued him.

He wondered why he hadn't thought of Laurel since he had been shot, surely Sara would always remind him of her sister, but she had been forgotten as more trouble came. With a start Oliver realized that he could barely remember her voice, even with the photo the memory of Laurel's face had started to fade from his mind and memory.

But the emptiness that followed upon the realization surprised him, why wasn't he upset when he realized how much of Laurel, and thus his humanity, was becoming nothing but a vague memory, a memory of a lifetime long since passed?

 _Because you don't have any humanity left._  The dark voice that had plagued the corners of his mind since he had awoken from his death spoke from within him. The voice seemed so familiar, as though Oliver had heard it all his life, but somehow the name eluded him, like the thick, dark swirling fog that clung to Lian Yu in the morning, before being dispersed by the bright rays of the sun.

Oliver clutched his head with shaking hands, his form tense as the words burned within his mind. "That's not true," he whispered to himself, the sound hidden under the crackling fire. Sara glanced up from the photo when she saw her former lover clutch his head, his eyes burning from unshed tears. She couldn't tell if it was from grief or fear, but she had an inkling of which one it was.

 _Oh Ollie,_  the voice crooned, it's tone as sweet as a rotting carcass.  _You're a killer, a monster._  Oliver shook as though fever had struck him, perspiration clung to his temple despite the cool breeze that accompanied the darkness of night. He wanted to scream, scream until his voice was hoarse and his throat bloody. He wanted to get up and run, run from the voice inside his head that spoke of things he often wondered himself before he fell asleep.  _You can't run from me, Oliver. I am you._

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand brush against his shoulder, he scrambled backwards before stopping when he realized it was only Sara. The young Lance was looking at him with sadness, as though he was a dying man and nothing she did could help him. It made him angry, but, then again, he was always angry now.

"What's happening to me, Sara?" He whispered as he clutched at his head, as though he could squeeze the dark voice created by a super serum out of his thoughts and head by mere force. Sara's hand found his own, her slender fingers wrapping around his own bloodstained ones. Oliver leaned against the woman's shoulder, tears silently streaming down his cheeks in steady rivulets, the pent-up fear and grief finally breaking through the glass dam, shattering it into a million pieces.

"I don't know, Ollie," she whispered back, her free hand finding its way on his back, she began to slowly rub circle along his back, the movement slowly calming him down. There was something about that simple action that made the anger and pain and every hidden emotion recede back into his damaged body. "I don't know…" she looked at him in the eyes, and he saw that she wasn't looking at him like a dead man walking, but a man with a chance of life. "But we'll figure it out, okay?" she whispered to him as the fire continued to warm them, "Shado and I, we can help you two."

He didn't realize he had his arms wrapped around her until she tensed, but he just didn't care. He brought her closer to his chest, not in an intimate way that he was used to, but a way that brought two hurt souls together. Sara nestled her head in the crook of his neck, Oliver's face pressed against her lighter locks, tears still streaming from his bloodshot eyes. "Back at the missile launcher, when Slade threatened you and I-I," he swallowed nervously, "I attacked him," he held back the shudder of horror from wracking his body. "I attacked Slade and he attacked back. We never do that, sure we fight in matches, but we've never tried to murder one another… We're going crazy, aren't we?"

Sara didn't answer, but her silence just confirmed his worst fears.

Oliver swallowed back the bile rising in his throat, he tried to focus upon something besides his gradual descent into madness, he focused not on the memory of Laurel like he used to do, he didn't focus on his family who thought him dead, he didn't think about Tommy who used to be his wingman and closest friend, he focused on what was right in front of him, alive and in his reach.

He focused on Sara.

Oliver chuckled slightly in morbid amusement, the only source of amusement that was available to them. "What's so funny?" Sara asked, still pressed against him, clinging to the tormented soul that matched her own.

"I-I," he fought back another wave of laughter. "I never did apologize." He stated with a small smile, one that was as fake as a nice Ivo.

"For?" She questioned.

"Everything." He admitted as he held her in his arms, he noticed that the rage that had burned through him had disappeared, but he knew it would come back eventually. "For bringing you on that stupid yacht, for cheating on Laurel with you, for being a spoilt manipulative prick, for you being manipulated by Ivo, for destroying your life… I'm sorry Sara."

She leaned backwards so that their eyes could meet, the shadows from the fire flickered across her face, her lips pursed and her eyes dark. "Don't apologize, Ollie… I'm the one who agreed to go to China with my sister's boyfriend, I'm the one who choose Ivo over death or worse, you didn't do anything Oliver." She looked downwards, as though afraid to look him in the eyes as she spoke again. "I'm the one who fell in love with you."

Oliver froze at her words, his arms tightening around the blonde woman in his shock and surprise. He hadn't known that. He shook his head in denial, it was his fault. Everything was always his fault. But Sara's declaration made him pause, "Sara…"

She laughed breathlessly, finding the situation morbidly amusing. "I know, how cliché. The younger sister falls in love with her sister's boyfriend, but I didn't fall in love with you when you started to date Laurel, it was before." She admitted as she gazed at their fire. "Do you remember when you spilt beer on me at Tommy's party?" she asked, it took a bit but Oliver vaguely remembered accidently spilling his expensive drink on a young teenage Sara, who had blushed profusely but Oliver had been too drunk to even apologize.

"I wasn't even supposed to be there," she admitted as she gazed upon the soft fire with an expression Oliver couldn't place, he could feel her steady heartbeat lulling him into serenity, he hadn't felt so peaceful in a long time. "But I snuck out of the house because I knew you were going to be there, and I had this embarrassing crush on you." She laughed slightly, Oliver could feel her smile against his chest, he smiled too but it was a sad smile. How had he never noticed? Probably because he was drunk off his ass.

"Laurel, she knew it. And that's why the party got broken up by the cops, she tipped off our dad. And I was grounded for a month and the next thing I knew…" she trailed off in melancholy thought, before she continued. "You and Laurel were together."

"She called the cops on you on purpose?" He asked her with no small amount of shock, Laurel was the goody goody of the sisters, she always kept him in line (or at least tried to) and the fact that she called the cops, and thus their father, on her baby sister was surprising to say the least.

"Not everybody is what they seem." She whispered to him, the truth embedding itself in his thick skull.

 _No one is who I thought they were,_  he thought to himself as he held Sara in his arms, listening to her heartbeat, strong and silent, just like her.  _Ever since I first arrived here, since Yao Fei shot me in the chest with that arrow, I don't even know what's real anymore. I've changed, Slade's changed, Shado's changed, and Sara's changed… what's real and what's not?_

"Sara, the Oliver that you had that embarrassing teenage crush on, he died when the Gambit sank. He drowned in that unforgiving ocean, I'm not Oliver Queen, he died a long time ago…" the castaway stated with a face set in stone, his brow furrowed as he spoke to his former lover.

"I know that Ollie. But the Sara Lance who had that embarrassing crush on Oliver Queen died on the Gambit too, she drowned in that unforgiving ocean. And I know that you've changed, Oliver, but I think it's for the better." Sara admitted as she continued to lean against him, his fast beating heart underneath her head.

"I'm not a good man, Sara. I'm a killer, a murderer, a monster," he repeated the words the voice in his head had stated.

She whacked him on the shoulder, it didn't hurt but it made him look at her. "You died for me, Ollie. You died for Shado. You gave up your life for ours, even when you could have looked the other way and let one of us get a bullet between the eyes. But you didn't, the Oliver Queen I once knew would have never done that, he was too much of a coward. But you aren't that Oliver Queen, not anymore." Sara's eyes were blazing as bright as crackling lightning, daring him to say different.

"Than who am I?" He whispered to her, fear burning in his bright blue eyes as the fear started to set within him again, right next to the burning anger that lingered within his already blackened heart. His hands started to shake violently, who was he?  _What_  was he?

Sara's hands found themselves wrapped around Oliver's shaking hands, her slender fingers holding his hand that had slowly stopped shaking uncontrollably. "You are Oliver, the man who saved my life. The one who has become the better man. You may think that your heart is filled with nothing but darkness, but I can see a bright light glowing within you, waiting to be unleashed. You're a good person, Oliver, and we can all see it, we love you. You're Slade's protégée, Shado's apprentice, and my friend."

Oliver wasn't ashamed in the slightest as he felt his vision blur from unshed tears, had Slade been there he would have laughed and called him a softie, Oliver would have brushed off the tears and say it was because of the smoke, but his friends were still on their way back with medicine for a dead man. It was just them, and Sara was someone he trusted, Shado had told him of how she had taken the radio during the middle of the night, how she severed all ties with the supposed doctor, she really was on their side.

It made him happy. So happy that he momentarily forgot about the darkness that was lurking within his heart and mind, the corrupting venom that were his crazed thoughts. He felt as normal as he could be, and he wanted things to go back to normal so bad.

He yearned for morning sessions of sparring with Slade and Shado. Slade would have kicked his ass within a minute, but each fight got longer and longer with each passing day. Shado would go easier on him (though that didn't mean she didn't kick his ass every single time) and help him on his form. Slade and he would joke as they spared, friendly banter flowing between them as intimate as brothers could get.

Shado would then take his bruised form and help him with his archery, the days of slapping water were over, and now he could actually hit the target. Slade still recalled the days where he couldn't even hit a tree twenty meters away with glee, ribbing his friend of his mistakes but, in his own gruff and surly way, proud of his student's growth.

He could easily imagine Sara being with them, maybe they could double tag Slade and finally Oliver could get his revenge for all the bruises, maybe Sara and Shado could become the sisters to one another, like how Oliver secretly thought Slade and he were brothers.

Was it selfish of him to yearn for that normalcy? Was it terrible that he wished that Ivo and his pirate crew would sink to the ocean floor and leave them in peace? They needed to get off the island, but Lian Yu had become his home. Sure, he wanted to leave, oh how he wished he could go back to Starling City and chase after his little sister, or to be able to hug his mother again. He wanted that so bad. But he had become a better man here, despite the tortures of the island, his eyes had been opened. Here he had found clarity.

He didn't want to think of what would happen if they did leave the island. Would they stick together? Or would they leave one another? He knew it was selfish to want to keep the three with him forever, he knew that Slade had a son, Joe, back in Australia, and he would be the first thing on the ASIS agent's mind, just like how Thea and his mother would be on Oliver's mind. Shado had been a lawyer before she had been kidnapped, would she return to Hong Kong? And Sara… Well he was pretty sure that her family practically hated him now, which he deserved, but if she came home would they forbid her from seeing him?

"How did you do it?" He asked, trying to leave that train of depressing thought well away from his mind, but it lurked in the back of his head, the Mirakuru encouraging it. "How did you calm me down at the missile launcher?"

He had been so angry, Slade had been angry. Add in a mysterious World War Two super serum and something was bound to happen, but they had literally tried to kill one another. That scared him.

But Shado and Sara had calmed the two men down with but a few words. Shado he knew would be capable, she calmed down Slade on a daily basis, and him being on some miracle drug wasn't going to change that. But Sara had spoken to him about his family and knew exactly what to say to calm him down, he didn't think Sara knew so much about him. Before the island, he hadn't paid much attention about Sara, aside from her availability, but now he saw her in a clearer light. Like a fog had dispersed.

"I don't know Ollie," Sara sighed as she thought back to that event with a frown, it just proved that something was wrong with her friend and his mentor, and from all the reports she had read, none of them had a happy ending. But she would try her hardest no matter what, Slade was a complete ass but Oliver cared for him, and she cared for Oliver.

"The  _Mirakuru_ , it's like a disease. It destroys you from inside, you can shrug off a bullet or a scratch, but a wound from within the body can rarely be healed. The  _Mirakuru_ , it's like darkness, a suffocating abyss of despair and hatred. So, I gave the serum a new medicine," she tightened her grip on his hand as she spoke next, "I focused on the light. Love and happiness. Thea and your mom… They're your bright spots in your heart, the island has split your views on a lot of things, but they haven't changed in your mind. To you, Thea is still that naïve but lovable baby sister who adores her big brother, and your mother is a kind woman who loves you more than the world, she cared for you when you were a sick as a child or you scrapped your knee and she kissed your wounds to make it better, she held you when you had a nightmare or was scared of the monster in the closet. They're waiting for you, Ollie. I know that it's been over a year, but I know that they're still waiting for you on that port. They're waiting for you to come home."

Oliver thought of his mother and sister. He could practically hear Thea's childlike laughter carried by the wind that whistled throughout the clearing. If he focused hard enough, and closed his eyes, he could feel his mother embracing him one last time. He should have given her one last hug back on that dock, but he had not even thought of her at the time. He should have said goodbye. There were a lot of things he should have done.

The was the sound of leaves to their left, and the bright light of a flashlight shone through the foliage in the darkness. He prepared himself to lunge at the threat, but relaxed when he realized that it was only his mentors with the medicine for a man who wouldn't need it anymore. Sara quickly removed her hand off of his. "We got it," Slade announced as he waved the small bag in front of Sara.

Shado, who was holding the flashlight, aimed the device at the man face. Something in her eyes seemed to break as she saw the ashy skin.

"You're too late." Sara said dully, looking at the dead father before glancing back at the picture of the smiling orphan. "He's gone.

Slade cursed under his breath and dropped the bag, Shado averted her eyes in respect for the dead.

"We're all going to die here, just like him," Sara whispered out, her voice cracking as she looked down upon the cooling body with watery eyes. Oliver wished he could comfort her but he couldn't. How could he, when he had died but a few days ago? None of them were safe on Lian Yu.

Only Shado seemed unaffected, and instead began to wander over to the crashed plane. Shado aimed the beam of artificial light in the cock pit, making sure to be wary of any broken glass or fizzling wires. For a few minutes, there was only the sound of rummaging as the archer sifted through the debris. When her search led her to cockpit, there was a triumphant laugh. "No, we're not," Shado called out, wrestling something caught on the seat and pulled it out of the wreckage. "We just found our way onto Ivo's freighter.”

For the first time in days Slade looked hopeful, a spark of the old Slade coming back. "A parachute."

The original trio shared looks, words not needing to be spoken as plots began to settle in their heads. Finally, some luck, and they were going to use this for their advantage.

Ivo had failed to destroy them, and now he was going to get an arrow in the head for it.

 


	4. The Man In the Hood

The plan was simple. So simple that it bordered on the edge of insanity, and balanced on a knife’s edge. One slip up, a few precious seconds wasted, and that freighter would become their graves.

But there was no room for failures, not when Ivo was still at their shores, not when the voices inside of Slade and Oliver practically salivated and howled for the bloodshed. Not when Ivo's madness continued to wreck havoc upon the world the doctor had proclaimed to save.

Shado glanced over at her friends, a warm smile on her face, wistful and just a tad fearful, as she turned her attention back to Sara as she explained her plan with Ivo's truth serum. Slade tried to return the smile, but it was as though his face was stiff as stone and instead managed a slight twitch of the facial muscles that made him look like he was about to suffer a stroke, but it was really just nerves building within the Australian.

Shado would be the one to set the plan in motion. She would allow herself to be captured by Ivo and his men and taken aboard the ship as a hostage.

Oliver and Slade had refused when they had first heard it, Oliver even volunteering himself. Oliver knew Ivo, he had been on that damn freighter, and he knew just what horrors the doctor was capable of. He remembered those prisoners, placed in cages like lab rats. Oliver had no desire to have any of his friends witness that. Slade didn't want Shado to anywhere near Ivo. The last time they had seen one another Ivo was ready to pull a trigger on her, had Oliver chosen differently.

Sara and Shado had put their foot down and glared at the serum-injected men. Sara stated that Ivo didn't even know that Oliver was still alive, Ivo most likely thought the Queen was six feet under after a fatal shot to the chest. When he realized Oliver was in fact very much alive, it wouldn't take long before Ivo realized that he had been injected with the  _Mirakuru_. When he knew that, Sara argued, Oliver couldn't be the bait as Ivo wouldn't be stupid enough to leave Oliver left in the cell. It would be straight to the dissection table for the Queen. If Ivo had the slightest chance to pry out the secrets of the Mirakuru from Oliver’s body, Sara told them grimly, he would. There would be no hesitation or mercy.  

Shado would have to be the one to do it. The concoction Sara had prepared from some of the local flora would neutralize the toxin Ivo was fond of, sodium pentothal, which was commonly called truth serum. The doctor was arrogant in its ability and wouldn't suspect anything but the truth from his soon to be captive. Shado would lie about their location, claim they were below deck, making those armed with RPG's to abandon their posts as they scurried around the ship like the rats they were.

And then the rest of them would arrive, Slade and Sara by the parachute and Oliver by the water. There was no way the three of them could hope to sail onto the  _Amazo_ , so Oliver, thanks to his  _Mirakuru_  enhanced body, would swim through the frigid waters.

Once they had regrouped on deck, Slade and Oliver would wreak havoc upon the armed guards that were patrolling, while Sara would free the prisoners from their cages. Shado would be the one to take on Ivo, but at the insistence of Slade, she would only knock him out, so that his punishment could be given instead of a quick death by Shado.

It was there, whilst Oliver watched Sara show Shado the various herbs and flowers, that he heard it again, the voice that had plagued him since his 'death'.

_You_ _’_ _re going to let Ivo live? Don_ _’_ _t be a fool, Oliver… Justice means nothing here, honor means nothing, morality means nothing…. All that matters is death._

The soft murmur of madness whispered within the archer, it's poisonous whispers heard only by him. Oliver shifted on his feet uneasily, trying to find a distraction from the influence of the  _Mirakuru_ , the influence of utter madness and chaos. He tried to focus on Sara's different herbs and pink flowers, the horrible pungent odor burned at his nostrils, but he couldn't escape from the grip that had held onto him since he had died.

' _No, I won't kill without meaning… Ivo deserves to die, but to kill needlessly without hesitation is the mindset of a madman… someone with that mindset is just another Ivo, only with a different appearance. I wont be that,'_ Oliver thought to himself stubbornly, unwilling to break under the madness that threatened him.

 _Says the man talking to himself… accept the madness… crave the chaos… immerse yourself in the darkness… and nobody will ever hurt you or your friends again,_  the voice that seemed so familiar, but also not, spoke with a honeyed tone of insanity, it's soft tone lulling him into serenity, like that of wolf in sheep's clothing, hidden amongst prey, waiting for the moment to strike.

Oliver stayed silent, had anyone looked at him they would have seen the pure and utter amount of pain as he fought for control of himself, he could feel the  _Mirakuru_  wrapping itself around him, from the blood in his veins, to the muscles in his body, his fingers twitched, but not of nervousness or anxiety, but from the internal battle that raged within him. The battle for control.

' _I won't fall to temptation… my friends are safe, I don't need this power cursed upon me to protect them… I will never fall to you,'_  Oliver thought to himself as the pain coursed through him, he clenched his eyes shut as though to shut out the throbbing pain, sweat trickling down his brow in tiny rivulets.

"Oliver…"

He turned around to see Shado standing behind him, her brown eyes wide and soft, a small smile playing at her lips. She glanced over to Slade, who was busily staring at his black and orange mask, eyes glazed over in memory. In her hands was a bundle of green cloth.

She held out her arms, the bundle held reverently in her hands, at Shado's nod Oliver slowly took the bundle from her and unfurled it.

His eyes widened when he realized that he was holding Yao Fei's, now Shado's, hood. The fabric was rough to the touch, but no tears were visible, Shado had taken care of her green garment almost fanatically, it being one of the few things left of her departed father.

"I want you to have this," Shado spoke softly, her eyes staring up at him, no  _through_  him. Past the hardened shell of a condemned castaway, and into the soul of a hurting man trying to find his place in the world.

"Shado, I-I…" He couldn't say anything, what could he say? Her bestowing the hood to him was a sign of ultimate faith, it was the equivalent of earning Slade's complete trust, it was her father's hood… he wasn't worthy of it. "I-I," he tried to give it back to her, but Shado refused, her stance tightening in an act of defiance, the glare she was currently giving him made him weak at the knees.

"My father was a great man," her eyes saddened as she remembered her father and his sudden death at the hand of Edward Fryers. "He bequeathed this hood to me, in hopes that I too would become great, but I believe that this hood should be yours, for despite your hesitance, I can see in you what my father saw in me…  _Greatness._ "

"I'm not worthy," Oliver swallowed as though trying to swallow back the fist-sized lump in his throat. "Shado, I can't accept this… this is  _your_  hood, not mine."

' _I don't deserve it, I'm not great, I've made some choices that could be considered great, but_ I'm _not great. I wasn't great before Lian Yu, and now I don't even know what's wrong with me now. Yao Fei wanted you, his daughter, to continue his legacy, not some former whiny trust fund baby who now has some serious mental issues and the aggressions of King Kong and Godzilla wrapped up into a stupid Miracle serum.'_

"You might think you are not, Oliver…" Shado spoke softly, her brown eyes dark in thought as she gazed upon him, a soft smile playing at her lips, "But while you think yourself unworthy of my father's legacy, I believe you are worthy. You saved my life, Oliver Queen… a debt that that cannot be repaid. You gave your life for mine, for Sara's, when you could have easily chosen one of us and lived, without making the greatest of choices, and that itself is the greatest of sacrifices."

The hood felt like it weighed a ton in his hands. Oliver was all too aware of Slade and Sara staring at him, their curious gazes burning in his back. He looked at Slade pleadingly, quietly begging the Australian to help him in this situation.

Slade put down his own mask as he looked at his apprentice with a curious look in his eyes as he glanced between Shado and Oliver. He didn't say anything for a couple of moments, lost in thought, before he spoke, "Just take it, Oliver. Shado's right, you deserve it."

Sara watched the conversation with curiousness, not truly understanding what was so important about Shado's hood, though judging by Oliver's gob smacked expression it was a big deal for the castaway.

Oliver glanced back at Shado, who merely narrowed her eyes in challenging glare, daring him to contradict both her and Slade. How was it that someone who barely came up to his shoulder and most likely weighed half of his weight could be so terrifying?

Grumbling at his mentors and their tag teaming ways, Oliver unfurled the bundle of green cloth and placed it over his shoulders. The cloth itself barely went past his chest, unlike Shado whose smaller frame made it go down further. He slowly raised the hood until it draped over his head, hiding his hair from the world.

Sara had to admit, that when Oliver wore that hood, he didn't look like a frightened castaway. Instead a proud and experienced warrior stood before her, all fear and insecurities hidden away under the visage of strength and power.

Shado was smiling as she looked at her student with pride, he had come so far from the boy who could barely knock an arrow and aim and under her and Slade's tutelage he had become the warrior Oliver had always been destined to be. Even Slade had to admit grudgingly that Oliver looked like he had been born to wear Yao Fei and Shado's hood.

"You look good, kid." Slade offered with a smirk as he turned his attention back to Shado. "Now that we've dealt with Oliver's outfit, we still need to have a group discussion about what to do with  _that._ " He turned his head and nodded at the metal crate written with Japanese Kanji, the box of  _Mirakuru._

"There is no discussion," Sara interjected from across the fuselage. "We burn it."

Slade scowled at that, "And why should we do that?" He didn't exactly share Sara's idea of burning what could be a backup plan in case Shado was ever mortally wounded. Unbeknownst to Slade, those thoughts weren't his own, but rather belonged to the voice in his head that had formed under his injection to the  _Mirakuru_ , urging him to save the serum in case Shado was ever close to death... or to inject others.

Shado frowned at Slade's words, "No, Sara is right, Slade. The  _Mirakuru_  must be destroyed. What if Ivo managed to find it?" The thought of that madman with such power in his hands was terrifying to all of them.

The Australian seemed to consider her words with a grimace. Oliver began to wonder what Slade was thinking when the man suddenly nodded his head. "Very well," Slade said grudgingly as he looked at the woman he loved and could never argue with. "We'll destroy it." The was a spark in Slade's eye that made Sara question the man's motives, the complete one eighty in opinion didn't really help either. Did Slade truly want the  _Miracle_  destroyed? Or was he just waiting for an opportunity, but an opportunity for what?

* * *

The fire burned brightly, the only source of light that lit Lian Yu aside from the stars and moon, even then clouds covered the sky, like a thick blanket hiding the island from the view of the world. The metal box sat in the middle of the blazing fire, the rusty iron chains glowing an almost light orange color from the greedy flames.

Sara watched as the fire continued to burn, her bright blue eyes watching the dark outline of the chest in the middle of a bonfire. She watched with conflicting emotions as she saw the  _Mirakuru_  and Ivo's dream go, quite literally, up in flames.

"Anthony devoted his entire life to finding the  _Mirakuru_ , nobody even thought it was real. It was his dream…" Sara stated softly, her eyes fixated on the chest filled with a super serum that had affected their lives so much. The serum had killed two of them, nearly killed another, and brought the other two a new chance of life. But at what cost? The cost of their mental state? The cost of their humanity? Sara didn't know, she honestly didn't know.

"Did he ever say why? Did he ever state a reason for this hunt?" Shado asked from besides Slade's hulking form, "A man like Ivo has one goal, and for him we're looking at it, a serum thought nonexistent, impossible. There must have been a reason for this, how else would he have heard of the  _Mirakuru_  in the first place?"

"He wanted to save the world."

Slade scoffed at that, he crossed his hands across his chest and glared at the flames, as though he could still feel the burning sensation that had scarred and killed him. He had died by Ivo's hand. Oliver had died by Ivo's hand. Shado could have died by Ivo's hand, had Oliver not taken the road less traveled by. Shado and Sara had informed him while Oliver was still unconscious on just exactly what had happened in that clearing, what Ivo had forced his brother to do.

Ivo would die by his hand, Slade would make sure of it.

Oliver was silent, but secretly agreed with Slade on the matter, which he knew Shado also shared agreements. He had been there on the  _Amazo,_  he had seen the cages. The prisoners. The freighter had reeked of death and decay. He had seen the haunted looks on the faces of his then fellow prisoners, the look of utter and pure hopelessness. They were but mere lab rats, playthings for the demented mind of a twisted doctor.

If Ivo thought he was saving the world, than Oliver Queen had been a saint before he had been marooned on Lian Yu.

"We should prepare for tomorrow," Shado finally stated as the flames continued to devour the chest filled with  _Mirakuru._  The past couple of weeks had been nothing but pure training, even with his now enhanced body Oliver still felt sore from the fighting with Slade, his aim had improved under Shado's guidance with the bow, though he had nearly snapped it like a twig the first time since his injection.

"You girls go ahead, I need to speak with the kid about something." Slade rumbled out. Shado and Sara didn't say anything to him, they merely walked past without an argument, both stuck in their thoughts.

Slade looked darkly at the burning crate, glaring at his protégée who merely didn't speak, for he knew why Slade was glaring at him, and he didn't mind it.

Slade had wanted to keep the Mirakuru, why? Oliver had no clue, and he knew that would remain a mystery. Slade had pulled him aside and whispered to the blonde about his plan of swiping the amber syringes and filling the box with dirt to trick Sara and Shado, though Slade had felt guilty at tricking the woman he loved, but he knew what would happen if Shado discovered the remains of the Mirakuru he had wanted to hide, she would have destroyed the stash without hesitation, and Slade wouldn't have been able to stop her.

He hadn't expected Oliver to argue with him, they had nearly come to blows yet again, but the remembrance of last time and the danger they were to, not themselves, but Sara and Shado, stayed their fists.

Oliver had argued with him, his statement still going through Slade's head.

" _We've already lost enough, Slade, and this Mirakuru has taken more than Fryers ever did. You know as well as I what it's like to have this serum in you… the dark whispers… the craving to kill… the sheer amount of bloodlust…It's maddening, Slade… Don't let this part of our lives be something we'll regret, a story fit for tragedy… let's make it a happy story… a story where this dark curse can't hurt anyone ever again."_

Slade had to hand it to the kid, he had a way with words sometimes, though most of the time the ASIS agent just wanted to punch him for his less tactful words, those words he had spoken had made him pause, made him really think.

He would later think that Oliver's influence was making him into a softie, but he trusted Oliver, one of the only people left on this blasted earth that he trusted with his life, and Slade didn't trust easily, Slade didn't  _do_  'trust'. Not since Billy stabbed him in the back and tortured him. But yet the kid somehow managed to gain his trust, which became absolute when he knew that Oliver would never betray him like William Wintergreen did, Oliver had given up his life for the woman he loved, Shado, and the woman he somewhat tolerated, Sara. Oliver was worthy of his trust, because he knew it would never be broken.

Slade had never had a brother, growing up an only child. When he had joined the Australian army at the age of sixteen, lying about his age obviously, he had thought that maybe he had found a brother in Billy. He was wrong about that. But now with Oliver, he wondered if this is what it was like to have a brother. Granted Oliver was the annoying, hotshot little brother that Slade wanted to strangle every five minutes or so, but brothers nonetheless. The kid might get on his nerves sometimes, but no one could deny that they had some damned good teamwork. Add in Shado and the trio were nearly unstoppable. They were a family.

 _Great, the kid's made me go all sentimental and cozy…_ Slade thought with a dark scowl, sending another burning glare at Oliver who merely smiled brightly at the dark haired man. As though he knew what an influence he had been to make Slade more emotional instead of the hard ass he had meet all those months ago at the fuselage.

Slade fingers twitched, wanting to grab the kid's throat. He controlled the urge however.  _Shado wouldn't like it if I hurt the kid, a small nick would probably kill him, it's a wonder he's come this far without accidently killing himself,_ he thought sourly.

"We made the right choice," Oliver said softly, returning his gaze back to the burning crate of  _Mirakuru,_  while Slade continued to brood.

"We could've saved at least one of them," Slade snapped back to his apprentice, his heart rate accelerating as he felt the iron grip of the  _Mirakuru_  try to snag its talons on his emotions and mind. He closed his eyes in concentration, trying to calm himself down, Shado had told him that he couldn't let the anger and hatred wash over him, he  _couldn't_ , and Slade tried, he tried for Shado. He tried to control the hatred with the love he held for her, he tried because he knew that if he didn't, than a life with Shado would be impossible.

If he ever hurt her… it would kill him. If he lost even the slightest amount of control and she was too close and he was too far gone… the Miracle would take away the woman he loved from him.

He felt Oliver's hand clasp his shoulders, glancing up at the blond he saw the concern in his eyes, but he also saw deep within them the same struggle that was within him. The struggle for control.

Shado has mentioned something similar to their plight, some hocus pocus mumbo jumbo that Slade didn't really understand or care for. Let Oliver be the superstitious one, Slade had a fine sense of reality and that was more important. Yet somehow Shado's words came to him, clear as day.  _"Everyone has a demon inside of them. The Dao de Jing recognizes the yin and yang, opposing forces inside all of us. The darkness and the light. The killer and the hero."_

Slade wasn't a hero; he was a killer. All of them were killers, but did that make them bad? They killed for survival; here on Lian Y it was survival of the fittest. There wasn't room for heroics.

Heroes died, that's what made them heroes in the first place. Slade didn't feel keen on dying, at least not until he got his revenge on Ivo. Heroes were idiots in Slade's opinion, being a hero was something fit for a man like Oliver, not himself. Oliver was the idealistic one; the one who still saw the light in the dark world that they lived in, a hero was Oliver. Slade wasn't a hero; he didn't want to be one.

"You and Shado seem to be closer," Oliver suddenly spoke, breaking Slade from his thoughts. "Can I ask if you two talked about, you know," he stressed with a raised brow, "Where you two stand."

Slade smiled at that, shaking his head as he realized that the kid was getting better at reading faces. "When we went to grab the medicine for that pilot, we talked." He was silent for a second, his dark eyes glazed over in memory as he remembered the conversation he had with Shado.

They had finally been able to talk about what had been in Slade's mind since he had first awoken from his death, his confession to Shado about his feelings. Oliver noticed the smile worming its way on Slade's lips. "I'm going to take a guess and say that it turned out well?"

Slade nodded his head mutely, but nobody could deny the sheer look of happiness that burned in his eyes. "Yes, it did. She wasn't too happy about me never telling her before I died. She was upset that I had confined and contained my emotions for her and hidden them away, some mystical mumbo jumbo about that not being good for the psyche," he stated with a small grin, shrugging his massive shoulders as he glanced at his comrade. "You know how she gets when she speaks in those old metaphors and meanings."

Oliver laughed at that, finding it oddly amusing at the thought of Shado and Slade being together. Mostly because Slade could be a cynical hardass who saw only the darkness of humanity while Shado was someone who believed in the strength of human willpower and that one could be redeemed. She was the light and he was the dark, but somehow it befitted them.

"What about that girl in the photo, Laurel, Sara's older sister?" Slade asked curiously, when Oliver shot him a look of surprise, his mentor shrugged his massive shoulders, "Shado mentioned it." He stated as he crossed his arms as he looked upon his protégé with a raised brow. "That photo you always gaze at before you go to sleep, the one you have in your front pocket right now, where does she stand in all of this?"

Oliver's hand crept down into the folds of his pockets, his fingers clenched at the tarnished paper that beheld the smiling face of Dinah Laurel Lance; he took it out and gazed upon it. Laurel's face smiled up at him, would she still smile, if she saw him now? The boy she had known and loved had died a year ago on the Gambit with her sister, would she realize that he had changed? He had changed so much since he first came face to face with Yao Fei. Before his hands had been clean of death, but now blood still stained his hands, hidden from view but still there all the same. Could she still love a man who looked like the foolish boy she had loved, when he was really a stranger?

He didn't know, and honestly if he was truthful, the love that had burned and blazed within his heart and soul had sputtered out, the bonfire that had been his love for Laurel now reduced to dying embers. The thought of Laurel no longer filled him with hope of a better tomorrow, where he no longer needed to kill to just survive the night.  _I don't love her anymore,_  he realized all of sudden.  _I don't love Laurel anymore…_

"I don't love her anymore, Slade," he said. Laurel would only understand the boy who had been shipwrecked on Lian Yu, not the man that had been forged there. "We could never be together, not with all that's happened and… I don't think I want us to be together."

Oliver looked upon the fading photo of Laurel, the picture had been his anchor to his humanity, but he had lost that long ago. Who knew if he could somehow gain it back, he hoped he could, he didn't want to be lost to his own darkness. Though he had hope.

He had hope in Sara. He had hope in Slade. He had hope in Shado. They were his anchors now, not some distant figure that was hold dear by the dead Oliver Queen; those three would be his humanity, not Laurel. He might have needed her before, when he was still naïve and foolish, when he had dreams of hope and rescue before awaking to his nightmare that was now his life, but now the photo was dead weight, something that would just drag him down. He couldn't focus on the bright and wonderful past, he had to focus on the dark and realistic present.

He stepped closer to the fire, the flames illuminating his face as shadows danced around behind him, throwing his silhouette in a crazed frenzy. He held out his hand, the photo lightly held between his fingers, he looked one more time at the photo of the smiling Laurel, her brown eyes somehow still capturing the look of innocence that had been in her doe brown eyes when the photo had been taken three years ago. Releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding, Oliver let go of the photo.

For a second the photo seemed to be suspending in the air, but the wind caught it and gently guided it towards the greedy flames that enveloped the photo. Laurel's smiling face beamed up at him, before the paper began to curl and blacken. For a brief moment all that remained of the photo was Laurel's eyes, so bright and innocent of the darkness that stained the world, before it too turned to ash.

Slade was silent, watching his apprentice with a calculating eye. He said nothing, Oliver's past statement was all the explanation he needed.  _This kid… is no longer a kid._  Slade Wilson thought suddenly, looking at the man before him.  _He's grown from that whiny little brat who showed up at my fuselage._  The Oliver he had threatened to slit his throat was long dead, when he died was unknown. It could have been when he shot Fryers in the heart, it could have been when Shado and Slade trained and beat the weakness out of him, it could have been when he was captured by Ivo and taken to the  _Amazo,_  it could have even happened when Ivo held a gun to his head and told him to choose an impossible choice.

He was damn proud of the man who stood before him, he was proud to be his mentor and his friend.

Oliver suddenly chuckled dryly.

Slade raised a brow, "What's wrong?"

"I just thought of something I really want, but can probably never have ever again." Oliver laughed again, "I want a drink. A strong one too… why couldn't I have been marooned at an brewery in Hong Kong?" He wondered aloud.

Slade smirked smugly, his dark eyes lit in knowing. He walked past his friend and the burning crate of  _Mirakuru_  –even now he was still pissed about burning it, and the  _Miracle_  inside him agreed with him- and headed towards their home. "Let's get a move on kid, wouldn't want you to get lost and get eaten."

They made their way back towards their home; the air around them was silent save for the chirping of insects and distant howls of beasts. "We made the right choice about destroying the  _Mirakuru_ , Slade." Oliver suddenly spoke. "We couldn't have let Ivo get his hands on it… there can't be others… You know what it does to people, what its doing to us… We can fight it… Or at least keep control, we aren't alone. It's like the beginning, just you and I against impossible odds. We can  _win_."

The ASIS agent was silent at this, "We don't know that yet, kid. You've felt it too, haven't you? The urges… to rip, to maim, to torture, to kill… whatever is in our blood it's strong too, don't forget that."

"I know… whenever I try to go to sleep I don't dream. I don't even have nightmares. All I hear is  _it's_   _voice_ … whispering to me. Promises of power and safety spoken in an warm tone, telling me to give in to my true self… my darkness." Oliver clenched his fists so tightly blood dripped from his palms, the wounds instantly healing as though they were never there, the only sign of its existence was the crimson-stained fingertips. "And what makes it worse is that it sounds so  _familiar._  Like I've heard it all my life, but somehow I just can't figure it out yet."

Oliver laugher bitterly, "Is that happening to you too? Or am I the only crazy one on this Purgatory left standing?"

"No, you're not the only one," Slade admitted, "I hear the voice too… I don't know who the voice is either, but it's female if that helps. Sometimes I think its Adeline yelling orders at me, like in the old days. Sometimes it's Shado."

"Adeline?"

"My wife."

"Oh…" Oliver should have realized that Slade was married; he did have a kid after all. But Slade didn't really seem the 'lets get hitched and settle down' type. Had he been different before Lian Yu? Or had Slade always been this bitter and hardened?

"It doesn't matter now," Slade said gruffly, "She's probably moved on by now. Joey and Grant probably have someone else to call father… it's not like I was there for it to be different."

"When all this is over, I can get you a ride to Australia to see your family. Money has always been open to me. Can't tell you how many times I've tried to bribe people trying to kill us with it though… honestly, Fryers wanted to start another world war and Ivo's a psychopathic lunatic, but none of them want a couple million dollars? That's just my stupid luck, I get the greedy assholes who don't want money, just power and glory." Oliver grumbled to himself.

They continued walking.

"... Thank you."

The small mumble was barely heard by the Queen heir, but he still heard it. Oliver smiled, "It's what friends are for, Slade. I owe you so much, a private jet isn't much really."

By then he could see the firelight that outlined the shadows of the fuselage, it seemed that when he had been injected with the serum it wasn't just his strength that had been enhanced, his senses had been too.

"I'm exhausted, it's been a long day," Oliver stated as they walked towards the opening. When they entered, Shado had aimed a bow straight at Oliver's heart, when she saw who it was she quickly lowered the weapon.

"We were wondering when you two would finally come back," she stated as she laid her father's weapon against her cot, Sara sitting opposite of her, an empty plate in her lap and another on Shado's cot. Oliver raised a brow, had the two women been talking? It looked that way.

"Just admiring the countryside," Slade offered as he headed towards the end of the fuselage. "Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the roses, Shado."

Shado raised a delicate brow at that, "I was not aware you enjoyed such scenery and lazy activities, Slade."

Slade, who had begun to rummage through old crates and boxes, shrugged at her words. "I'm a man of mystery."

The snort of laughter was quickly followed by Sara, who blushed professedly when the others looked at her. The Lance girl was still rather shy around them, except for around Oliver, who hoped to help break her out of her shell.

Oliver sighed in weariness and relief as he laid down on his cot. Arms crossed behind him to act as a pillow, he felt like he could sleep for days. But he had things to do, he glanced down and saw his quiver; maybe he should make sure there were enough arrows for tomorrow, he reached for the quiver and began to count and inspect every arrow. They would be the tools he would need to bring the freighter into their control.

The sound of metal clanging against a hard surface awoke Oliver from his thoughts, he turned around, the action followed by Shado and Sara, as he saw Slade emerge from the outside with a knife in one hand and a bottle of amber liquid in the other. Slade smirked at them, a true Slade smirk that wasn't affected by the Mirakuru but by his friends, he held up the bottle, allowing his fellow castaways to openly gape at the dark amber liquid.

"Whose thirsty?" He asked his friends with a grin.

Oliver felt his face break out into a smile, his eyes trained on the bottle of alcohol. A sight he thought he would never see again. It had easily been over a year since the Queen had anything hard to drink, and man did he miss it. That explained Slade's attitude back at the bonfire. Oliver had to wonder one thing, was Slade his guardian angel? He certainly had the stuff to make himself one.

"Where'd you get that?" Oliver asked with a grin of his own as he slowly stood up, placing his quiver full of arrows against his cot.

"Who cares lets drink it," Sara replied back with a grin, as she too got up. Shado rolled her eyes at their behavior but even Shado couldn't help but grin at the thought of a much needed drink.

"It was one of the few precious pieces of the cargo to survive the plane crash," Slade explained as he sauntered over to a trunk and pulled out four metal mugs, "And Billy Wintergreen and I were planning on saving it for a rainy day. But…" he broke off the topped of the bottle easily and began to pour the rum into the cups. "Considering, gods willing, this is our last night on the island…" he trailed off, nobody needed to fill in the sentence, as the four knew that, with luck on their side, in twenty four hours they could be sailing towards Shanghai or Hong Kong. They could finally go home.

Sara held up her mug in a toast, a look of determination on her pale features as she spoke. "To taking the freighter."

The four castaways clanked their mugs of the precious Australian rum together, the firelight flickering in the background as they gazed upon one another, they were no longer fellow castaways, but comrades forged by blood and battle.

"To getting off this island forever," Oliver declared, something they all wished for.

"To safe passage," Slade exclaimed, eyes glowing in determination and thought.

"To family," Shado spoke softly, but they all heard her. The air turned quiet, thoughtful, the only sounds were the chirps of insects, the distant howls and growls of the surrounding wildlife, the crackling flames, and the inner thoughts of each of the individuals standing besides one another.

"To  _our_  family," Slade stated hoarsely, glancing upon Shado and Oliver, Sara was surprised to see him glance at her as well, though it was so brief that she wondered if she had even seen it.

They drank then; the rum was strong but it was the best thing anyone of them had drank in a long time. They laughed slightly, the alcohol relaxing them as much as the surrounding company. Oliver grinned along, his lips pressed against the rim of his cup. He studied his family before him, while none were connected by blood, it was the blood on their hands to bound them. Slade would kill for him, for Shado. Just as readily as Oliver and Shado would kill for him, Sara wasn't a killer, but she had fought in her own way by breaking all ties with Anthony Ivo.

Oliver felt the darkness that had plagued him since his injection rear backwards into the corner of his mind and heart, he couldn't explain the joy of the possibility of returning home with these people in front of him, safe and sound without any worries of threats. The darkness was barely there, a mere ping on the back of his radar. Who cared about some stupid Japanese serum when he was safe with his friends, his family? He loved these three before him, loved them more than he had ever loved anyone before, perhaps save his sister, mother and father. Not even Tommy, lovable goofy Tommy, could compare to the loyalty Oliver held to Slade, no girl he had ever loved could compare to his love for Shado (though now the love had transformed into a love that he had shared with Thea, a sisterly love rather than a romantic one) and not even Laurel could compare to Sara, who had done so much and gone through more.

Oliver felt his eyes water, tears of joy and happiness leaking out from his bloodshot eyes unbidden, hidden from the others by the shadows.

"Don't tear up on us kid," the short snort that came from Slade made Oliver scowl and wipe away the tears in his eyes, of course Slade had seen it.

"It was the smoke," Oliver defended himself, standing upright and glaring down at the shorter but buffer Australian. Slade glared right back, practically nose to nose with his protégée.

Sara and Shado paused from drinking, suddenly flashing back to the missile launcher and the events that had happened. For a few tense moments there was nothing but the sound of pure and utter silence, Slade glared at Oliver, Oliver glared at Slade.

Oliver suddenly burst into laughter, his face breaking into a wide beam few ever saw from him since he had washed ashore a year ago. Slade soon followed with his own deep bellow of laughter, his chest shaking with each chuckle. The two, both who had looked ready to murder the other mere moments ago, beamed at one another with cheeky grins and bright eyes as the enveloped one another in a manly hug.

Shado sighed as she watched them and their antics, but she couldn't help but smile at the two men before her. She slowly stepped around the gob smacked Sara and instead came to their side, Slade and Oliver glanced down at her from their man hug, Shado raised a single eyebrow as though expecting something.

The two  _Mirakuru_  injected men grinned at her, true grins that reminded Shado of the people that they were, not what the  _Mirakuru_  tried to mold them into, and brought her into the hug, the three of them wrapping their arms around the others shoulders.

Sara stood by, awkwardly looking on at the intimacy that was shared by these three who had been mere strangers a year or so ago. She fiddled with the rim of her mug, before starting when Slade looked at her over Shado's shoulder, looking at her right in the eyes.

The look in his eyes made Sara want to bolt, a lesser man or woman would have, but Sara looked at him dead on, determination outweighing her fear of the  _Mirakuru_ injected killer. Some emotion flashed in Slade's dark brown eyes, he looked at her in thought, before slowly nodding his head, beckoning her to come forward.

Slowly and hesitantly, Sara walked forward. Oliver glanced up, a smile still on his lips. Giving her a nod of reassurance, Oliver held out his right arm, the other wrapped around Shado's petite shoulders, Slade didn't say anything as he too opened one of his arms to her, a hole suddenly appearing from the tight knit circle of friends. Sara joined their comradely hug with no small amount of shyness, but when Oliver slugged his broad arm over her small, thin shoulders she couldn't help but feel a small bubble of warmth that she hadn't felt in a good long time; it took her a second to realize what it was. Happiness, pure and utter happiness.

Slade's arm wrapped around Sara's shoulder, bringing her closer to their circle. The three became four at that moment, a new member had joined their closely guarded family. Sara was no longer an outsider amongst these proud warriors. The small sliver of fear that had plagued her since both Shado and Slade had first threatened her, should she betray them, ebbed away into nothingness, for now that fear was unfounded. She had nothing to fear from these three, nor did the three beside her fear the same. Shado, Oliver and Slade knew why they now trusted the woman who had suddenly been thrust upon their deadly world, why they no longer wondered of her true loyalties.

She might not have been there as long, or gone through everything they had gone through, but she was here, now, ready to die for them. And for that, they welcomed her. She was one of them.

* * *

 

Oliver, Sara and Slade stood on the rocky outcrop of the cliff that overlooked the beach. Oliver faced the beach, his bright blue eyes trained on the large amount of wood they had propped together to create a bonfire that would lure out Ivo's men like a moth to flame. Shado wasn't with them, but was instead hidden within the jungle that stretched across Lian Yu, waiting for the signal to appear, so that she could be captured and taken aboard the  _Amazo._

Slade stood by his comrade, his blades strapped to his back, his gun at his side, a pistol in his holster, and the black and orange mask in his hands. Slade had prepared for war, just as the others had.

Oliver wore the green hood proudly, his stance confident and strong, his face expressionless as he looked out across the choppy waters that surrounded Lian Yu. The bow was held in his hands, but no arrow was notched. Patience was key.

"Can you make the shot?" Sara asked the archer, looking at the distance with a questioning look, she had never seen Oliver use the bow before, and she wondered if he could even get near the target from such a high altitude and long distance.

Slade snorted at that, he looked at her with a smug smirk, "You'd be surprised, girlie. The kid's got a few tricks up his sleeve, just wait and see." He returned his attention to the desolate beach.

The archer said nothing as he grabbed an arrow, wrapped in old cloth that was burning ever so slightly, he struck the arrow lightly at a certain rock of flint, sparks flew and the arrow caught aflame. Oliver aimed his bow, his eyes dark with determination, for a second all he did was breath, before he released the bowstring.

The trio watched the flaming trail arch high above them, before it started to dive towards the pile of lumber soaked with whatever gasoline they could scrounge up from their limited supplies. Sara's breath got caught in her throat as she saw the arrow get closer, she tensed, awaiting the sound of the explosion when she saw the designation.

Only to relax when the arrow missed the lumber by a few feet, the flaming arrow bouncing off the rocks harmlessly.

Oliver tensed his broad shoulders when he felt the stares burning in his back, "There's a breeze," he defended himself through gritted teeth, daring them to speak out against him.

He grabbed another arrow, their last flame arrow, and lit it. He took longer to aim, his eyes trained solely on his target, his grip lax but sure. Sara couldn't put her finger on it, but when she looked at him, his face set within the hood of Yao Fei, his stance was that of a warrior. She saw no resemblance of Oliver Queen, both from before and during the duration of Lian Yu, she saw a man unknown to her, an archer, a warrior, the man in the hood.

When he released the arrow, Sara knew immediately that he had aimed true. The resulting explosion of flame and debris wasn't needed to know that he had struck the pile, the look in his eyes and the proud smile on his face was all Sara needed to see.

Slade grinned at the success of his student, patting him on the back as he gazed through the binoculars, tracking the figure of Shado as she appeared from the jungle to stand by the blazing bonfire. He turned to the ocean and saw the small figures of scurrying men preparing a motorboat. "They're coming," he stated aloud as he looked at the small watercraft approaching their shores.

Shado waited for them calmly on the shores of Lian Yu, even when they raised their rifles to her head she didn't not flinch, she did not feel fear, and she was truly and utterly unafraid.

As the men surrounded her, Shado raised her hands in the air, before pressing them to the back of her head. When one of them grabbed her by the arm and steered her towards the small motorboat, Shado resisted the urge to lash out and break the man's neck. But unlike her friends, Shado was ever patient, that was one of the traits that made her so deadly, and Ivo would learn that very soon.

As Shado was taken away, Oliver could practically hear the grinding of teeth as Slade stepped forward slightly from their position, his hand slowly itching towards his blades as he saw Shado being taken hostage by Ivo's dogs.  _Don't touch her, you fuckin' pieces of scum,_  the former ASIS agent thought murderously, the  _Mirakuru_  rearing it's head as rage overtook the Australian man with the fury of a thousand suns. His hands trembled violently, his blood boiling at the thought of Shado at the mercy of Ivo once again.

Sara took quick note of the man's sudden change in emotion and backed away nervously, knowing full well that if he wanted too, Slade could throw her off the cliff with a single flick of his wrist. She knew that in the right state of mind, Slade wouldn't do that to her, but with the  _Mirakuru_  flowing through his veins it made him a questionable character when tempers flared.

"We stick to the plan," Oliver stated as he glanced upon his mentor, taking note of the darkened eyes that had matched his own when the  _Mirakuru_  had tried to take control. He clasped Slade on the shoulder, jerking the man from the dark thoughts that threated to corrupt him.

Slade grunted, "Stick to the plan." He repeated as he strapped on the parachute, locking Sara in with him so she wouldn't fall when they jumped. Oliver had to wonder, had Slade ever used a parachute before? When the plane he and Billy Wintergreen had been shot down, the two had gone down with it, but he was a former Australian Intelligence agent, surely he had done it before, right?

Little did Oliver and Sara know, Slade had never actually used a parachute before. He knew how to deploy one from his training back in Australia, another lifetime ago, and how to pack it, but he had never actually used one, which seemed a bit foolish now in his humble opinion, not that he would tell the other two… he did deserve some respect from those kids, he doubted they knew anything about a parachute either.

Oliver handed Sara his bow as well as the quiver, she looked up at him with a quirked brow, as though questioning him. He shrugged his massive shoulders, "I don't want them to get wet," he stated off handedly, "Shado would kill me if her father's bow was damaged... keep it safe."

Sara looked at him, holding the leather quiver and the bow in both hands, with watery eyes she suddenly hugged him, awkwardly trying to wrap her arms around him, though she managed to do so, the tip of the bow knocked against Oliver's head. He hugged her back tightly, fearing that this could be the last. "Remember what I said in the fuselage… about what to tell my family if I…" He tried to continue, but the lump in his throat prevented him. The though of never seeing Thea and his mother again prevented him from speaking, his love for them so strong that not even the  _Mirakuru_  could corrupt it.

Sara nodded her head softly, her lips pulled in a soft, sad smile, understanding in her light blue eyes as she looked at the man before her. The archer stood tall before her and Slade, the hood of Yao Fei worn proudly on his head. Behind him the bonfire still blazed, smoke rising from the fire in pungent grey clouds.

Slade said nothing, his eyes focused solely on the small motorboat speeding towards the  _Amazo,_  his enhanced eyesight helped by the binoculars Oliver had given him, the scopes trained on the receding figure of the woman he loved.  _Shado… come back to me,_  the proud and ruthless man thought to himself as he closed his eyes in a silent prayer.

"You know when we first tried to get off this island, we were just strangers." Slade's voice was soft as he gazed at Shado's capturers taking her away, he glanced over at the man who stood by his side, as he always had, and always would. "But now, its just brothers."

Oliver blinked at those words; he looked at Slade who looked at him. Oliver smiled at that, the term he himself had thought of Slade finally being spoken. Slade might not be his brother by blood, but they were brothers all the same. Brothers forged by war.

"Stay safe, Slade," Oliver said to him softly, clasping his brother tightly on the shoulder in a show of brotherly affection.

Slade chuckled at that as he returned the show of affection with a smirk, "I'm always careful kid, try to not drown on your way there." He said idly as Oliver scowled at him, Sara couldn't help but smile at the scene set before her. They really were brothers, siblings of war and death, but brothers nonetheless. She doubted that anything could break their bond, though Ivo had tried and failed to do so.

Oliver stepped towards the edge of the cliff, his foot kicking loose pebbles that plummeted towards the frigid waters that crashed against the rocks and shore. He looked back over his shoulder and looked at the two, with a smirk befitting a Queen, Oliver gave them a mock two-fingered salute, "See you two on the freighter." And with that, the man in the hood leapt from the cliff and plummeted towards the water, where he would swim towards the sore sight of the freighter that loomed in the horizon.

Now came the harder part. Sara glanced back at Slade, suddenly pale with worry. "Have you used one of these things before?" She asked timidly, gesturing towards the parachute.

"Actually I've never done this before," Slade admitted sheepishly.

"W-Wait,  _what_!?"

Slade suddenly rushed towards the edge of the cliff and leapt, Sara being herded by him as she was chained to his harness. Sara couldn't help but scream in fear when her feet left the safety of the ground and instead hovered dozens of feet above the foreboding seawater. " _Slade_!"

The Australian just laughed at Sara's terror, keeping his sights on the eyesore that was on their horizon. The  _Amazo_  and her crew had almost taken their lives because of the  _Miracle_   _Serum_  but now this would be different. They were bringing the fight to Ivo, and Slade hoped that Ivo was praying to whatever god he believed in at the moment. Because the second they touched the deck of that freighter, all hell was going to be unleashed on Anthony Ivo.

Slade was going to show that bastard why nobody could hurt his family without paying with his life, hell was going to be let loose and Slade Wilson was going to be the one to unleash it.


	5. Taking the Amazo

They landed without issue, the winds having died down to a gentle breeze, soft and serene despite what was to occur, a bloodbath and a massacre that would happen once they were discovered, but for now the ship was quiet. The calm before the storm.

"At least we weren't shot down by RPG missiles," Slade commented as he hurried to rid himself of the parachute harness, besides him Sara stumbled from lack of balance, her pale face tinged lightly with green.

"Let's not do that again," she moaned out as she wrapped her arms around her stomach in a desperate effort to not puke from their arrival by air.

"Relax, girlie. It's all part of the plan," Slade stated as he threw the harness and parachute over the side of the ship and watched it sink into the ocean, leaving no traces of them being there. "Don't throw up, or you'll be the one trying to hide that."

Slade suddenly fumbled around for something in his jacket, he paused for a second as he found a simple Colt 45 in one of his jacket holsters, and he pressed the gun in her hand. "I'm guessing you know which way to aim this thing?" Slade asked gruffly.

Timidly she looked at the gun, the metal gleamed in the moonlight. She had held guns before, what with her being a cop's daughter and all, but she had never shot one at a  _person_. She had never killed before. Slade saw that as a weakness, but she might as well have something to protect herself even if it was basically useless to the Lance.

He uncoiled the rope that was slung over his shoulder, wrapping one end of it around a post and flung the other end over the side of the ship. He reached for his mask. The orange half was apparent even in the darkness, whilst the black side blended in with the inky shadows. Somehow it befitted Slade, though Sara didn't know why. It was only when he grabbed his assault rifle did Sara hiss at him, "What do you think you're doing? Oliver's not here yet. We have to stick to the plan, Slade." She whispered, knowing all too well that they had to regroup with the others before they took the  _Amazo_ unless they all wanted to get killed.

"Oliver's already here, girlie." Slade said gruffly as he checked over his rifle, grunting softly when he saw that his favored weapon was in tiptop shape. "He's in the water below us."

"What?" Sara leaned over the side of the edge, but the darkness made it impossible to see through the thick canvas of night, all she could see was the moon reflecting in the middle of the bay, it's circular shape bent and warped from the rolling waves. "I don't see him."

"I'm right here, Sara." Oliver's voice suddenly spoke from far below her, a mere whisper that still managed to make the Lance girl jump at the sudden sound. "H-How?" Sara Lance wondered as she peered closer, still unable to see him in the cover of night, she turned to Slade with wide eyes. "How did you know that?"

The mask hid his face from her and the world, but she could still feel the smirk that was playing at his lips. "I can see him well enough, not to mention he keeps making noise every time a bloody wave hits him." He said simply, though he knew that a normal human being shouldn't be able to hear or see like that.

 _Incredible, the Miracle didn't just fix his body and give him strength. It improved it as well. He's not just better in terms of speed and strength, but his senses are enhanced as well,_  Sara thought in awe as she realized just how much the  _Mirakuru_  had altered their bodies, for Slade to see Oliver in the water in the wee hours of night was nothing short of astounding, to hear him was even greater.

Slade leaned over the edge and held out his hand, another hand appearing out of the darkness and grabbed onto him. Slade helped pull Oliver over the side, the Queen heir was drenched and looked slightly out of breath, but other than that he was fine if only a bit paler from usual due to the frigid waters.

"Did you hear that?" Oliver asked Slade softly as Sara handed him his bow and quiver.

Slade nodded his head. "Yeah, I can hear it," he grunted.

"What? What can you hear?" Sara asked sharply, suddenly feeling rather vulnerable due to her normal senses.

"Alarms," the voice of Shado was heard right behind them, and before Sara could even blink the daughter of Yao Fei appeared out of the darkness, looking around the empty deck warily.

Slade enveloped the Chinese woman in a strong hug, "Are you hurt?" he demanded as he held her at arm's distance and looked over her, searching for any injuries with darting eyes full of concern.

Shado smiled warily, obviously discomforted about something. "No I'm not, but I cannot say the same to the other occupants on this ship. Ivo's been busy…" She said no more as Oliver handed Shado her bow.

"You'll need it more than I will," Oliver stated quietly as he handed her the quiver as well. He rubbed his knuckles lightly, remembering the strength he now held within him.

"Oliver and I will take out the armed guards, Sara will free the prisoners. Shado, it's up to you to bring down Ivo, but don't kill him… not yet," Slade's face was hidden under his mask, his eyes cold and cruel as he thought of what he would do to Ivo for killing his brother and attempting to kill Shado as well.

Shado nodded her head at this, noticing the coldness in Slade's tone. She prayed that his willpower would be enough to hold back the  _Mirakuru_.

"Don't kill Ivo yet," Oliver said suddenly, eyes suddenly cold. "He needs to pay for his actions…" he trailed off darkly, leaving Shado and Sara silently worried whilst Slade nodded his head in agreement.

"Very well," Shado said softly, not wanting to get into another argument with the  _Mirakuru_ -enhanced male when their time window was so precarious and short. The four looked at one another, some wondering if they next time they all regrouped if everyone would still be alive. They all hoped so.

"Good luck everyone... with luck the next time we'll meet it'll be on our way to Shanghai," Oliver said softly, the green hood hiding all but his eyes, which looked so hopeful that it gave the others hope that their plan would, for  _once_ , work.

The four split off from one another. Slade and Oliver heading downwards in the freighter while Sara headed towards the cargo holds and Shado towards the Captain's Den.

Oliver rushed down the stairs, Slade having taken the opposite direction to find his own enemies. The man could hear droplets of water dripping down the metal walls, the droplets pelted Yao Fei's hood, but the Queen paid it no heed. Two men with AK-47's were patrolling the hallway, the second they saw the green-hooded man one of them yelled.

"There! Right there!"

Oliver barely had time to blink as the two men held up their assault riffles and unleashed a hail of bullets. They rammed into the archer, who stood there almost dumbly due to the sudden realization that he was completely unhurt. It was as though he had been wearing several layers of Kevlar, though Oliver knew that it was the  _Mirakuru_  that kept him alive.

 _Huh… so I'm basically bullet proof now…_  Oliver thought to himself idly as he rushed towards the panicking henchmen who had by then run out of bullets. The first one never even saw the dark figure in the hood rush him before he was suddenly held up in the air by a clenched hand over his throat. He had one second to look into cerulean eyes as cold as ice before his world faded to black as his neck was snapped.

The other man hurriedly backed away when he saw his comrade's neck be snapped so easily with one hand, he fearfully raised his gun towards the attacker's face, his finger clenching the trigger though the magazine had long since emptied. It made a  _click click click_ noise. The man in the hood walked closer, his eyes cold and dark.

Oliver killed the remaining man with ease, snapping his neck like a chicken bone. Glancing down he looked at the men he had so easily killed, their features were familiar. It took him a second, but when he realized why they were so familiar it hit him like a train.

They had been there in the clearing. They had been there when the weak Oliver Queen had been defeated and forced to choose between his loved ones on who gets to live and die.  _They had been there…_

The rage and anger that suddenly burst from within him made Oliver drop to his knees, as though a great weight had been placed upon his shoulders like the weight of the world.

Words could not describe the destructive force that was flowing through his veins, blurring his vision in crimson waves. Oliver barely had a chance to realize that he couldn't move his prone form as he felt something cold run up his body like ice, freezing his limbs in place. He felt all of the willpower and control he had created around himself as a barrier from the  _Miracle_  was suddenly shattered like fragile glass as he felt the coldness creep up on his frozen form.

Oliver could only watch as his body suddenly stood up on it's own accord before he started to sprint down the hallways of the  _Amazo_ as his body suddenly found a new mind to control him. The  _Mirakuru_  had finally taken control, and he couldn't break it.

"Intruder! Kill him!"

Several more henchmen had appeared in the once abandoned hallway, their assault guns blazing as they shot at the intruder who just kept running towards them, completely unhindered by the bullets that slammed into him and bounced off as though the bullets were rubber.

Oliver could only watch from within his own body as it acted on it's own accord. He could only watch as the henchmen were literally torn apart by the monstrous strength that had lied dormant within his body. Blood splattered as limbs were torn or broken, screams of pain ringing and echoing throughout the freighter as the humans were faced with a monster that they had helped create.

Oliver hurried through the brig, a sadistic smile stretched on his face as he listened to the cries and screams of Ivo's goons. The  _Mirakuru_ ' _s_  grip was on him, controlling him, and urging him forward towards his next target, his next victim.

" _Go, Oliver. **Kill."**_

The familiar voice that was the darkness crooned to Oliver, but it wasn't Oliver it was talking to. Because Oliver was gone, all that was left was the  _Mirakuru._  The man in the hood lumbered throughout the watery halls, intent on finding Anthony Ivo, intent on making him suffer as much as humanly possible, before ripping his wretched, twisted heart out.

"Die!" A goon, rather young compared to the others, maybe even near Sara's age, rushed forward towards the archer, with a wicked sharp machete swinging towards his chest.

Oliver grabbed the young man by the forearm, squeezing lightly as the man clenched his teeth in pain, his hand instinctively jerking and the machete clattered to the floor, leaving him weaponless. Oliver twisted his arm, his smile widening as he heard the pains cries of pain and of the pleading, the  _begging_  to be released, to stop hurting him.

But he didn't listen; he  _wouldn't_  listen. Because this man had tried to kill his friends by working with a madman, he allowed the torture of fellow human beings, and he  _wanted_  to kill him so badly it nearly ached. Somewhere, some part that was Oliver, hidden beneath the surface of his bloodlust crazed mind, tried to gain control, but the darkness pushed it away as though the man's strong willpower was as strong as a brittle leaf against a hurricane of raw power and animalistic fury.

His fingers were wrapped around the man's small neck, lightly tightening around the man's airway, but because of his enhanced super strength the man couldn't breathe, the  _Mirakuru_  injected man didn't want to accidently break his neck, not until the monster could finish playing.

"P-Please…" the man gurgled out, his brown eyes wide in terror as his hands desperately tried to pry Oliver' hands off of his neck, but it was like trying to pry apart steel. Oliver's strength was impossible, unreal, and inhuman.

When the man's face turned a vibrant vermillion, the veins sticking out of the skin in a color of dark blue, his lips pale, his eyes bloodshot and starting to close, only then did Oliver snap his neck as easily as breaking a twig.

The dead man crumpled to the floor with a loud thud, the body crashing into the murky puddles of seawater. Without hesitation the archer stepped over the body and headed towards the holding cells, knowing that there must be someone there he could kill.

" _Kill, kill, kill."_

The voice continued to chant those words as though it was a mantra. All that was on his mind was the thought of killing.

The man who wore the face of Oliver Queen began to prowl the hallways, moving as silently as a predator. The  _Mirakuru_  grinned savagely as it's bloodlust howled for more death, more blood, more pain. Oliver Queen could only watch from beyond helplessly as his body moved without him controlling it. He had lost control. The  _Mirakuru_  had taken over. There was no Oliver Queen anymore. The  _Mirakuru_  had won.

" _Kill. Kill. Kill. **KILL!"**_

* * *

 

Anthony Ivo held the phone tightly in his hand, waiting for the call to connect. "Come on, pick up. Pick up, pick up, pick up, please pick up," he pleaded silently into the phone, eyes shut as he heard the sound of gunfire below him. "Please, Jess…" He whispered as though praying, wincing as he heard the gunfire so close to him.

There was a resounding  _click_  in the receiver.

" _Hello?"_  A woman's voice was suddenly heard, sounding rather confused.

"Jessica, it's me." Ivo spoke into the receiver, silently thanking whatever god that watched over this cursed earth to give him the ability to call his wife one last time.

" _Who?"_ Jessica asked again, still confused.

"It's Anthony," Ivo said softly, patiently but unable to hide the bitterness –not at Jessica but himself- in his tone as he thought,  _please… remember me, Jess, please…_

" _Anthony…"_  Jessica whispered the name slowly, as though trying to remember its importance. It took her several moments, but Ivo heard her say,  _"I was married to a boy named Anthony."_

"I know, sweetheart." Ivo answered immediately, trying to fight back the tears in his eyes at the usage of past tense. Did she remember him? Or had the disease progressed faster than he had anticipated? Was she gone from him forever, another victim of disease? Had he failed her? It felt like he had, and that thought made him want to weep in agony and despair.

" _But he went away…"_  Jessica said softly, sounded neither upset nor pleased. She was completely emotionless, as though the boy she had married was just some faded memory she couldn't truly remembered. Was that all he was to her now? A faded memory and an unrecognizable face?

"I went to find a cure," Anthony said, flinching back at the sudden explosion that rocked the freighter. The fighting was getting closer, his death not that far behind. He wouldn't die yet. He  _couldn't_  die yet. Not while Jessica needed the  _Mirakuru_. "And I found one, sweetheart! I found it and soon-"

Another burst of gunfire, which sounded as though it was right outside his door.

" _He was a doctor."_  Jessica said amiably, remembering what she knew, which was so, so little.  _"But he went away."_

Ivo felt tears slowly dripping down his cheeks, he couldn't answer her, because it was true. He went away to find a cure, the  _Mirakuru_. He found it, he had held it in his hands, he could have saved her… but Ivo doubted that he could even save himself at the moment.

The door suddenly opened, Ivo turned around with the phone in his hand. An arrow flew past him, impaling itself on the phone and ripping it from his grip, before it embedded into the wall, sparks flying and the connection to the love of his life forever gone. Shado stood there in the doorway, another arrow knocked in her bowstring aimed straight at his heart.

"The next one goes through your heart," Shado warned threateningly. She looked uninjured save for a few scrapes at the cheek, though the trail of bodies outside showed that she had fought through a horde of Ivo's pirates to reach him.

"It wouldn't be right, shooting an unarmed man." Ivo said softly, hands raised in surrender. He felt so tired now that his last connection to his previous life had been severed.

Shado glared at him, pure anger burning in her brown eyes. "You seemed to find it easy when you killed Oliver," she spat at him with unconcealed disgust and rage. She was all but trembling before the man, not in fear like the last time but in anger and rage at the scum defeated before her.

"I gave him a choice and he chose." Ivo snarled at her, madness burning in his eyes like vengeful fires. "You should consider yourself lucky, you could have easily been the one with a bullet in you. I loaded the bullet and pulled the trigger, yes… But he aimed the gun. It just happened to be on himself." Ivo paused, suddenly looking thoughtful. "I admire that, he was a selfless man."

" _Shut up."_

Shado glanced behind her to see the towering form of Slade enter the room, his face hidden behind his orange and black mask. The man's form was practically shivering in utter rage, "Do not talk about my brother as though you know him." Slade whispered hoarsely, rage seeping into his tone that seemed animalistic.

Before Ivo could so much as blink, Slade had pounced. With one arm holding onto his machete and the other around the man's neck, Slade held him against the ceiling grate, the tip of his machete ready to stab the man in his twisted heart.

"W-Wait!" Ivo gurgled out, face pained and beginning to redden from lack of oxygen. "S-Stop!" He begged. "P-please!"

Slade didn't seem to hear him, though maybe he did and just didn't care. Though Ivo and Shado couldn't see it, a savage smirk had taken control of his lips and an inhuman spark of bloodlust glinting in his dark eyes.

"No, Slade!" Shado called out to the former ASIS. "We can't kill him yet!" Ivo was a madman but she didn't like the look in Slade's eyes. They were burning in an inhuman fury that Shado had seen in his and Oliver's eyes during their terrible fight at the missile launcher, when the  _Mirakuru_  that flowed through their veins had reared back it's head and attempted to take control.

She could see it now in his eyes, in his form that was tense and taut like an animal. Shado wouldn't let the  _Mirakuru_  take Slade away from her again. Shado had already lost her father, had already lost Slade once, had once lost Oliver as well. Shado wouldn't let that happen again.

Slade was looking at her, eyes full of confliction. Ivo's face was turning red, spittle flying as he struggled to breathe. "S-Slade?" She whispered softly, fearfully, as Slade looked away from her and back to the man who was struggling to breathe.

" _Kill him, Slade. Kill him."_

Slade jerked the voice that suddenly seemed to whisper in his ear.  _Shado?_  He thought to himself wildly as he heard her voice, but that didn't make sense. He could have sworn that Shado had said they couldn't kill him yet, but then why did she just say too? He shook his head in confusion, the vice-like grip around Ivo's neck lessened ever so slightly. Ivo breathed out in relief, though he was still held up against the ceiling with a machete itching to sink into his vulnerable flesh.

" _Kill him. Kill Ivo. He deserves it."_  Slade looked at Shado with a stumped look, trying to make sense. Adrenaline rushed through him, pumping his veins full of energy that made it impossible to think straight.  _"Kill him… Kill him…"_  Shado's voice was in his ear but the woman's mouth itself wasn't moving.

"I-I…" Slade tried to think of what was wrong, but he just couldn't focus. The rage was burning within him, aching to be used. The man who had made Slade's life hell and tried to destroy his family, who had killed his brother, was all but begging for mercy as Slade's fingers wrapped around his vulnerable neck. He couldn't focus. The  _Mirakuru_  took advantage of that.

" _He tried to kill me,"_  Shado's voice spoke into his ear full of sorrow and fear.  _"He killed Oliver, your brother… He tried to destroy our family, your family… Are you going to let him get away with that?"_

Slade gritted his teeth at Shado's reminder, fury began to burn within him, begging to be released and kill the man who had tried to destroy his family. Ivo had killed him when he bombarded the fuselage with missiles. Ivo could have killed Shado had Oliver chosen differently. Ivo had killed Oliver, his brother. It was only because of the  _Mirakuru_  that Slade Wilson and Oliver Queen were still alive.

He had sworn that he would have vengeance against the madman he held into the ceiling, he had sworn to avenge both himself and Oliver. It was because of Ivo they had died and now had the  _Mirakuru_  within them.

" _Kill him, Slade… KILL HIM!"_ Shado was screaming in his ear, though the woman herself wasn't talking, but was rather staring at him nervously. Slade didn't notice that, however. He had heard Shado give the command and he was more than pleased to kill the scum before him.

" ** _Kill!"_**

 


	6. Voices in the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mirakuru reveals itself

The blaring alarms hurt his ears, making them ring from pain thanks to his heightened hearing, but the  _Mirakuru_  injected man paid no heed, pain was nothing when compared to the need for vengeance. Oliver, the  _real_ Oliver hidden within and without control, seemed to watch as though his body was not his own, controlled by the dark urges of the Miracle. It was bizarre and outlandish, the feeling of watching your own body move and act without your guidance, it was like being locked within an unbreakable cage, trapped with no escape, but still able to see freedom through the tiny cracks.

He tried to wrangle back the control, but the bloodlust was too powerful, the curtain of crimson that washed over his view blinding him from clarity, his need and want to kill all consuming.

All that meet his path were killed immediately, a trail of cooling corpses littered behind him, their bodies reminiscent of broken dolls, their eyes glassy and still full of terror of the monster that had killed them. No one was spared, be they prisoner or one of Ivo's henchmen, any and all who crossed his paths were killed effortlessly. Their bodies lying in the desolate hallways of the freighter.

The  _Mirakuru_  injected man paused in his wanderings, his ears hearing the faint sounds that echoed throughout the desolate hallways, the sounds of breathing and heartbeats. Targets. He sauntered his way towards the signs and sounds of life, the darkness that controlled him yearned for the chance to corrupt the bright cheery light that was life, to let the world darken with every individual life snuffed out like candle flames to the wind.

He heard the struggled gasps for breath before he entered the main cargo hold that had held human prisoners instead of cargo. The cages were empty, their former tenants no longer around, either because they had fled from their nightmarish prison, Ivo's henchmen had killed them as they tried to flee, or Oliver had killed them on his way here. But it wasn't the empty iron cages that held his attention.

It was Sara.

A man was atop of her, his knees on either side of her small, shaking form. His strong, brutish hands clasped around her throat, a feral snarl of rage and hatred masked the man's tanned face, the strangler's eyes darkened as Sara's face continued to darken as well, her eyes wide and pleading as her vision stared to flicker and fade.

Sara Lance was terrified as she laid there defenseless, the very life choked out of her by this man's unforgiving thirst for vengeance against her and Ivo. Sara squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for death with terror beating within her heart.

And then, as though some vengeful god had plucked the strangler from the grasps of the earth, Oliver threw the man off of the woman with a roar that could only be described as inhuman and feral, as though the man had become the beast. The man who had been strangling the youngest Lance cried out as he was flung like a ragdoll, his body crashing against the unyielding iron cage that had trapped him for years. He collapsed upon the ground with a moan of agony. One of his hands had taken the brunt of the force, and was now bent at an angle that would have made others flinch, the hand now broken beyond repair with small bone fragments poking out of the bruised skin like embedded glass fragments.

Oliver stalked towards the former prisoner with murder in his eyes, his boots clanging against the iron floor as he got closer and closer to the man who had attempted to kill Sara. With one hand, Oliver grabbed the man by his throat and slammed him against the iron cage. The man gurgled something unintelligible, his tanned face darkening to a gory purple, his once strong hands now reduced to nothing against the raw power of the  _Mirakuru_ and the beast with the appearance of a man.

"O-Oliver," Sara managed to choke out as she laid on the floor, still gasping for breath. The  _thing_  that held the face of Oliver Queen glanced over his shoulder and noticed the bruises starting to form on Sara's pale neck, thick purplish bruises that marked where the man's fingers had tried to strangle the life out of her. Oliver's own fingers tightened their grip ever so lightly, careful to not break the man's neck. He needed to be punished for hurting his friend, slowly and painfully.

"L-Let me g-go!" The man choked out, spittle mixed with blood flying from his lips as he gasped and gurgled for air. The archer faintly remembered the man dying before him as Hendrick Von Arim. The man had despised Oliver for befriending Sara, unaware of their past relationship. Hendrick had hated the Lance for his imprisonment, but when Sara had given him his freedom, he had tried to kill her. Oliver was going to teach him a lesson about consequences, which would end in his painful and gruesome death.

Sara struggled to breathe, though she didn't know if it was because of the fact she had almost been strangled to death or the fact that when she looked into Oliver's eyes she didn't see Oliver, all she saw was cruel darkness that burned into her soul like the fiery pits of Hell. He wasn't a man; he was a beast. He wasn't Oliver; he was the  _Mirakuru._

Oliver sneered at Hendrick, dark amusement burning in his icy blue eyes that found the sound of the man's gurgles for air to be music to his ears, taking enjoyment of the pure and utter fear that was gleaming in Hendrick's watery, bloodshot brown eyes. Oliver squeezed his hand that was clenched around Hendrick's neck ever so tightly, not so much as to snap his neck, but to let him suffer as Hendrick had intended for Sara to suffer.

"You hurt my friend…" Oliver snarled at him. " _No one_   _hurts my friends!"_

Hendrick didn't say anything, or rather he couldn't say anything. His gasps and gurgles had turned silent, his eyes bulging and bloodshot and so full of fear, fearful of this  _monster_  that had appeared from nowhere like a demon from hell. Was this really the man Ivo had captured only a few weeks ago? Or was this some monster come to life in the skin of a human?

 _Pitiful,_  Oliver thought to himself with a sneer as his fingers wrapped tighter around Hendrick's throat. Enjoying the rasped gasps that reeked of desperation and fear, he craved that fear. He yearned for that look of complete terror of someone knowing they were going to die. He savored their pleas of mercy when mercy was nonexistent, he cherished their screams of pain. He loved the blood and broken bones. He craved it all.

Hendrick closed his eyes for a moment, somehow looking calm despite the darkening of his face that bespoke of pain and lack of oxygen. He snapped them open and stared into the eyes of the monster, glaring back with hatred and rage in his eyes. "F-Fuck… y-you!" He rasped out.

Oliver's eyes narrowed and with a simply tightening of his fingers, Hendrick's throat was crushed instantly. Blood poured out of the gory mess of broken bones and torn ligaments as Oliver dropped the body unceremoniously on the ground.

The man in the hood looked at Sara, still on the ground and staring up at him with horror. The man controlled by the  _Mirakuru_  frowned ever so slightly, as though something was wrong but he just couldn't figure out what. The  _Mirakuru_  felt a faint pull, as though something was trying to pull it away. The  _Mirakuru_  was a parasite, latching onto its host like a stubborn barnacle; it didn't like the idea of losing control back to its host.

Something flickered within the archer, something full of light and warmth that contrasted against the darkness and cold that dwelled within him. Oliver Queen, the  _real_  Oliver Queen, found himself slowly –oh so slowly- gain the ability to blink on his own free wills, the ability to wiggle his fingers. He was coming back. He was regaining control.

The  _Mirakuru_  didn't like that in the slightest. Oliver heard a hissing sound in the back of his head, the sound reminiscent of a venomous snake.

His whole body trembled, knees shaky and hands twitching violently as Oliver fought desperately to regain control of his body from the  _Mirakuru_ , who refused to give the man any leeway. It was a battle of wills between man and monster, and unfortunately for Oliver, monsters usually always win in the end.

Oliver wasn't aware of someone approaching him until he heard the footsteps, the sound of boots lightly hitting the metal floor of the brig. He felt the  _Mirakuru_  lessen it's presence enough for him to glance behind his shoulder, but when he caught sight of the newcomer the Queen heir would have collapsed had the  _Mirakuru_  not had such control over his body.

Oliver could only stare in utter horror as he saw the newcomer coming closer, he would have screamed had he had the strength to do so.

He stared at the illusion, for surely that was what the figure was, because how else could he appear here on the  _Amazo_? How else could someone dead appear before him, though the silent figure had done so once before, long ago, when Ollie Queen was still alive before the horrors of Lian Yu killed him.

His face was sallow, paler than a corpse, his familiar blue eyes dull and dead as he stared, unblinking, at Oliver. His once well trimmed beard was wild, greying hair growing in a tangled mane. But the most haunting thing about the illusion that looked as real as the first one was the blood that seeped and oozed out of a bullet hole in the side of the man's head. The  _Mirakuru_  had taken on its physical appearance.

"D-Dad?" Oliver Queen whispered in shock, eyes wide in horror as he saw the droplets of blood trickle down his father's temple onto the shoulders of his raincoat, the raincoat he had worn in death and whatever came after.

Robert Queen stared at his son with dead eyes, the eyes of the father stared into the same eyes of the son. Tears sprung from Oliver's eyes as he saw his father before him, the  _Mirakuru's_  control suddenly leaving his body, allowing him to collapse on the iron floor with a loud  _thud._

"Ollie!" Sara croaked out as she rushed forward, her neck already beginning to bruise from where that man had tried to choke the life out of her. She held the archer in her arms, resting his head in her lap as she looked at his shuddering and quivering form. Her hands seemed to caress his sweating cheeks, her hand ice cold compared to the fire that burned within him.

Oliver paid her no heed, his eyes locked with the eyes of his father. "D-Dad?" He whispered again, not noticing Sara's eyes widen or the tightening of her hands. She was mouthing something, screaming something, but he was deaf to reality.

Robert just continued to stare at him, a stare he had seen before. It was look when his father could scare off any bloodthirsty businessman with just a look, a look that promised complete and utter destruction. Oliver tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but even breathing seemed impossible, his vision swarmed, dots of darkness dancing around his field of vision, the artificial lights that lit the  _Amazo_  burned his eyes, but he continued to stare at his father.

" _Right my wrongs, Oliver. I sacrificed my life for yours, and you couldn't even give your father his dying wish… I'll make you right them, whether you want them to or not. You will avenge me, with blood and death,"_  The ghostly figure of Oliver's dead father spoke, his voice the voice of the Mirakuru.  _"Your friends will not stop you, for you have a duty you have ignored during your time on that island… Have you forgotten, son?"_

"No… No, no, I haven't forgotten," Oliver whispered to his father, his eyesight swarming as tears streamed from his eyes, washing away the blood and dirt that clung to his cheeks.

Sara was yelling at him, but he heard nothing. She shook him, but he did not break from his trance. He faintly saw her mouth his name, but he paid her no attention, for it was as though his entire existence was revealed to him, plagued and corrupted, unknowingly to him, by the mark of the  _Mirakuru._

"I haven't forgotten," he whispered again. "I haven't forgotten…"

" _I'm not the man you think I am, I didn't build our city, I failed it! And I wasn't the only one… You can make it home; make it better. Right my wrongs… Survive…"_

Those were the last words Robert Queen had told his only son, before he killed himself by shooting himself in the head, scarring his son forever. Guilt wracked over him like a tidal wave, he had been so concerned about survival, he had all but forgotten his father's dying wish, what kind of son did that make him?

" _A terrible son, Ollie, that is what you are. Right my wrongs, give in."_  Robert's eyes were dead and dull, but somehow managed to trap his son with his gaze,  _"Give in to your darkness… become who you were meant to be, what you must become."_

"I-I, I  _can't_ ," Oliver whispered to his father, his voice heavy with grief and guilt alike.

Robert's face turned into something hard and bitter, like something chiseled from stone.  _"You survived, and now you must right my wrongs… Avenge me, Ollie…"_ Robert's face suddenly seemed to morph into that of a monster, rage and hatred burning in his eyes with the strength of the  _Mirakuru_  that flowed within him. Robert Queen screamed, a harsh and guttural sound that grated against Oliver's ears like fingernails scraping against a chalkboard.  ** _"AVENGE ME!"_**

Oliver screamed as his body burned in agony. He screamed as he clutched the sides of his head with bloody fingers as he felt as though something from within him was trying to burst out of him. He screamed and screamed, voice growing hoarse and blood filling his throat in mouth.

The screams of Robert Queen mixed with the screams of his son.

Oliver screamed as he felt the  _Mirakuru_  rear back its head and consume him, the icy feeling of darkness creeping through his paralyzed form with stunning speed. Darkness plagued the corners of his eyesight, spots of light flickering across his vision before dying out. Oliver kept screaming and screaming as the agony seemed to grow and grow until he felt nothing but pain, nothing but hopelessness, nothing but agony.

" _Let me in, Ollie,"_  his father's voice crooned lowly to him, a sickeningly sweet tone that reminded Oliver of rotting flesh. " _Let the darkness in…"_

He felt so weak… so tired… the darkness surrounded him, it's inky canvas softly whispering him to close his eyes, to finally rest. The darkness whispered to him softly, mesmerizing him with its soft words. " _Just give in,"_ the voice whispered in the voice of Robert Queen. " _You can rest now, Ollie… Just close your eyes… it'll only take a moment… Let me in… Let the darkness in…"_

He was so tired… he wanted to close his eyes…

" _Let me in…"_

His eyelids felt so heavy… He just wanted to rest…

" _Give in, son…"_

Was his father right? Had he been forgetting his own father and his dying wish when he fought for survival? He felt so terrible, as though he was betraying his father's memory by just breathing. He was so tired… surely he could sleep for a little bit, right?

" _Let the darkness in…"_

Oliver slowly closed his eyes, allowing his vision to be overcome by darkness. He smiled despite the pain plaguing his weakened body; it felt nice to rest. The voice of his father, or maybe the  _Mirakuru,_  was all but purring in his ear, a soft whisper of encouragement to fall asleep and let his father take care of him like he had always done.

Suddenly he began to shake. He frowned at the sudden movement, but didn't open his eyes.

"Oliver…"

The faintest whisper. But somehow Oliver heard it, the sound of his name awoke him from his groggy senses if only slightly. The  _Mirakuru_  hissed in annoyance, like a venomous snake watching its prey crawl away before it could strike.

"Oliver…"

The voice was louder now, and terribly familiar. Oliver frowned, trying to figure out who was talking to him. The voice was muffled, like the speaker was talking to him on the other side of a wall.

Suddenly he felt a stinging pain on his face. His eyes snapped open in rage, ready to strangle whoever had disturbed his rest. His gaze fell on the terrified face of Sara Lance. The rage left him, if only for the moment. The  _Mirakuru_  was growling in his head in indignation at not having the chance to kill.

She was saying something, her mouth was opening and closing, but he heard no words come from the youngest Lance. Sara looked like hell, bruises were forming around her pale neck in thick, darkish colorations from Hendrick's hand, Sara's eyes were red and puffy as though she had been crying. But despite this, Oliver had never seen someone more beautiful in all his life. He felt his heart beat faster, lighter than before. He faintly remembered what Sarah had told him about how she had calmed him down at the missile launcher; his family.

The  _Mirakuru_  shrieked as images of his mother and sister came to mind, the anger slowly fading away into love for the sister and mother waiting for him in Starling City. The darkness that plagued his vision slowly began to recede, allowing him to see clearly. "S-Sara?" He whispered out hoarsely. Sara smiled softly at him, and that smile made the rage go away.

" ** _NO!"_**

Oliver howled as the  _Mirakuru_  howled in fury. He curled into a ball as he clenched his head as he felt the  _Mirakuru_  unleash its horrible, inhuman fury upon its host. Pain like nothing he had ever felt before coursed through his veins, making him as though he was being impaled over and over again. His chest began to burn as though someone was branding him with a heated rod, right where Ivo had shot him a week ago.

Sara was screaming again, eyes wide in horror with tears forming in the corners as she continued to scream at the shrieking Oliver Queen, who couldn't hear her. He could only hear the  _Mirakuru_  shrieking and howling in his ears, making them ring painfully. He clamped his bloody hands over his ears in a desperate attempt to lower the inhuman howls of fury, but it never faded away but seemed to grow stronger.

This pain… those shrikes of insanity and hatred screaming into his ear and soul… it was maddening.

Had he gone insane? Had the  _Mirakuru_  finally taken his sanity from him? Was he even alive anymore, or was he just in hell paying for his sins?

Insanity… how he wished for it, if only for the pain to stop. At least if he was insane, the pain could stop, he could forget about everything and just fade into the darkness.

"P-Please, make it stop!" Oliver Queen begged as his body convulsed as though it was being electrocuted; his body twisting and contorting into various forms of torturous pain.

He wanted it to stop so badly, he just wanted the pain to end! But Oliver knew that he couldn't give in, he had to think of his mother and Thea, waiting for him back in Starling City, but even the thought of returning home to his family seemed to fade away into nothing as the  _Mirakuru_  fought for control.

" ** _LET ME IN!"_**

The  _Miracle_ howled and shrieked, making the archer scream as well. He didn't want to let the  _Mirakuru_  in, he didn't want to surrender to the darkness… but even as Oliver thought this, the prospect sounded all the more better, at least then the pain and torture could stop. His father had told him that he could rest, and Oliver yearned for respite.

The only thing that kept him from closing his eyes, from releasing his soul and body to his father, was Sara…

_Sara…_

Why was she crying? Why did she look so upset? Oliver was so confused as he thought this, that for a second the pain seemed to lessen, becoming numbing rather than agony.

And Sara did look upset; she was red-faced and seemed to be yelling something to him despite her face being only mere inches away from his own. He strained his ears, curious as to why she was so upset.

"Don't let it in…"

_What?_

But his father had told him to let it in…

"It's not him, Oliver. It's not him!" He heard her whisper, voice detached from reality.

But his father!

His father would never want to harm him, but yet the voice had. His father had hurt him; the pain lingering throughout his body was a reminder.

No.

Not his father. Not Robert Queen.

The  _Mirakuru._

"Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out!" Sara screamed at him, though it all but sounded like a whisper to the dazed son of Robert Queen.

His father hadn't been speaking to him. His father hadn't truly appeared to him. It had been the  _Mirakuru_ … it had always been the  _Mirakuru._

"Don't let it in, Oliver! Don't make me lose you again, I need you! Slade needs you! Shado needs you! Your family needs you!"

_Family… Mom, Thea, Dad, Slade, Shado, Sara…._

Sara's words brought their faces to him, all of them together, smiling at him.

Mom, who had always loved him despite him being a terrible person before Lian Yu, who loved him no matter what kind of person he had been. Thea, his beloved little sister that would always want to be with her big brother, never once judging him despite the many mistakes he made. Dad, he had given up his own life to save his son's, he had always loved him, always cared for him, had never doubted him. Slade, his brother in all but blood, his greatest companion, the one who had helped him survive, someone who understood and loved him in a way that only true brothers could hold. Shado, she had helped him as much as Slade, always willing to risk her life for Oliver's, she was always there when the burden of Lian Yu became too much, she had once been his lover but now he viewed her the same way he viewed Thea, a beloved sister. Sara, he had damned her to this life when he brought her aboard the  _Gambit_ , he had put her in the way of Ivo's wrath, but yet despite all that he had done to hurt her, Sara had stuck by him and guided him through these past difficult weeks.

The  _Mirakuru_  seemed to wail as Oliver reflected upon her words in a daze, but it was as though the alluring voice in the dark had weakened, clarity starting to shine through the veil of darkness that surrounded him. The thought of his family, the warm burst of love that came from his heart seemed to burn through the darkness, erasing it all and the curse that it bore.

The crimson that had blinded him faded into nothing, the darkness that threatened to submerge him receded until there was only one thing left in his vision, only one thing, only one person. Someone who wasn't a hallucination turned nightmare, someone who was alive and had faced the threat of the  _Mirakuru_  for him.

"Sara?" He asked her, whisper faint and exhausted.

Sara Lance smiled down at him, even though tears silently trailed down her cheeks.

He felt the  _Mirakuru's_  control over him recede, the tendrils that clung to him let go, and the murky haze that had clouded his thoughts was lifted. The  _Mirakuru_  had receded, but it wasn't gone. He could still feel it lurking in the recesses of his mind, in the darkness of his heart, waiting.

"Don't ever leave me," he whispered, eyes fluttering tiredly but managed to give her the smallest of smiles. "Don't leave me alone, don't leave me in the darkness."

He didn't want to be in the darkness. He hated how  _weak_  he had been, despite the power and strength he now held within him. All of his self-control and willpower had been ripped away into nothing by the Miracle. All the barriers he had built around him, destroyed in the matter of seconds. It terrified him, to see how close he had come to being lost.

He didn't like the voice in the darkness. It was a Siren's call, captivating in its very nature, and just as deadly. He couldn't remember much after he had lost control, but the blood staining his clothes and Hendrick's mutilated body, the blood still pooling out of his mangled neck, was a cold reminder of what had happened. He didn't want to remember.

"I'll never leave you, Oliver." Sara promised him, clutching one of his bloodstained hands, still wet from Hendrick's blood, in her own. She looked so sure of herself, despite the bruising around her neck, so fearless. "I won't let you go into the darkness, I promise you." She gave him one of her own small smiles, "You're my friend, Oliver. You've saved my life on multiple occasions. I won't leave you."

"You're not… scared?"

How could she not be scared of him? She had seen him rip a man's throat out with no hesitation, she saw the blood staining his clothes, she had seen the monster lurking within him.

Sara seemed to pause for a moment, and Oliver's heart began to sink.

"I'm not scared of  _you_ , Oliver." Sara spoke softly, hands still clutching Oliver's tightly, she didn't seem to notice the blood that stained them. "But I won't lie and say I'm not scared of the  _Mirakuru._ You need help, but that doesn't make you a monster. We all have our demons, Oliver. You just need help with yours."

"No one can help me." Oliver said softly with lamentation, remembering the power and control the  _Mirakuru_  held over him with bitterness.

"Your family will help you. I will not rest until you're safe, I owe you my life, and I will always help you. Just as Slade and Shado would help you, I might not be able to fight like you guys, but I know my way around a medical lab. I won't rest until I find a cure."

Her determination struck a chord within him. He had never truly appreciated the loyalty within Sara Lance until now. He loved her, though he didn't know how he loved her, such as romantically or as a friend. He only knew that he would do anything for the woman before him.

Slade would trust her fully when he heard how Sara had pulled him out of his trance-

Oliver's blood ran cold, ice flowing through his veins and stopping his heart for a single moment of pure and utter dread.

"Slade," Oliver said fearfully, rising to his feet with a wince. "We need to find Slade." He tried to take a step forward, but collapsed on his knees. The  _Mirakuru_  hadn't just vanished; it had taken most of his strength with it. Sara wrapped her arms around him and helped him get back onto his feet. "If I lost control of the  _Mirakuru_ …" he broke off.

"Slade could have lost control as well." Sara finished grimly, steering them towards the exit of the cargo hold.

"We need to find them." Oliver sounded terrified, afraid of what had befallen his mentors.

"You need rest," Sara said as she noticed how shaky his knees were and how ragged his breathing was. Oliver looked ready to collapse.

"No, I'm fine." Oliver affirmed stubbornly, "We just need to find Shado and Slade first."

The two left, Oliver leaning on Sara for support, in search of Shado and Slade Wilson, both hoping that it wasn't too late.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Oliver and Sara were running through the halls. They were following the sounds of shouting and screaming, and Oliver looked rather pale as he identified the sounds as Shado and Slade; both he and Sara knew why.

Shado appeared as they turned a corner; interestingly enough she was dragging the unconscious form of Anthony Ivo with her. Oliver saw the bow with her, and he noticed how a great many arrows were missing from the quiver. Then he saw the blood.

Shado cried out for her student, not for help, but a plea of caution. She was warning them.

There was an inhumane roar, the roar of a savage animal, and Slade Wilson appeared wielding his swords, face obscured behind his mask. Sara saw his eyes, despite the distance and darkness, and saw that they were dark and full of rage, burning with an uncontrollable fury.

Sara barely had time to register the blur of green as Oliver barreled past her, slamming into Slade with the force of a rampaging bull. The masked man dropped his swords as Oliver slammed Slade into a wall, embedding Slade's body several inches within the metal as he strained to remove Slade's hands that were wrapped around his throat. "S-Slade," he gurgled out, Slade's hands still tightening. "S-Stop!"

"Get out of the way, kid!" Slade snarled out, eyes full of inhumane fury. It was the same crazed look in his eyes that had resembled Oliver's when he had lost control. Sara felt the same dread she had felt when she had seen Oliver out of control, a tight band of terror wrapping itself around her heart.

Slade had lost control.

"I won't let you hurt her!" Oliver snarled, pressing his shoulder against Slade's chest to pin him to the wall, one hand struggling to remove Slade's hands from his throat. "I won't let you hurt Shado, you idiot!"

Slade blinked suddenly, the crazed look disappearing for the briefest of moments as he whispered "Shado?" But then the eyes darkened again, full of hate and animalistic fury.

Oliver was suddenly flung backward when Slade managed to raise his knee high enough to kick him, sending the archer sprawling onto the ground. Slade leapt at him, pinning Oliver's arms with his knees as he punched Oliver hard in the face, breaking his nose with a single blow. Then he hit Oliver again, and again, and again.

_Cra-ack!_

_Cra-ack!_

_Cra-ack!_

Sara winced at each blow. She could hear the sound of bone breaking and of the bone repairing itself instantly, before being broken and repaired again and again. It truly was a truly terrible sound that made bile rise in the back of her throat as she watched on, helpless. Shado made a chocking sound besides her, a pitiful attempt of holding back her emotions as she watched the two most important people in her life try and kill the other.

Oliver's face was covered in blood, and he struggled weakly against Slade to no avail or respite from the attacks. To Sara, he looked to be unconscious from the harsh blows of Slade's fists, but it was hard for her to tell with all the blood. There was another blow to the head, a terrible cracking sound, and Oliver's head fell back, eyes closed as he was beaten into unconsciousness, blood and spittle dribbling from his mouth into a puddle besides him that had a few broken teeth in it.

And then Slade turned his head to his right – _at them._

Sara swore she felt her heart stop. Those eyes haunted her as much as the blood staining his fists.

Slade stalked forward, his gait reminiscent of a jungle cat –a predator in all sense and form- towards them –towards Ivo. Sara wanted to scream, to run, to hide, to disappear – _anything_ to get away from the monster that was in Slade's body. Shado didn't move a muscle, didn't even so much as twitch, as Slade got closer and closer.

_Bang bang bang bang._

Suddenly there were gunshots, and Slade jerked backwards as bullets slammed into his chest. Sara felt something grab her arm and yank her backwards, behind a man's back that was soaked in grime and blood. The bushy beard and wild eyes revealed that it was Anatoli, who was clutching a pistol in his hands.

"A-Anatoli?" Sara asked, amazed that the Russian had survived the attack on the freighter.

The Bratva leader wasn't looking at her; he was too busy staring down Slade who was clutching his chest as though he had been socked in the gut rather than shot point blank. Sara heard, rather than saw, the bullets that had been lodged within his chest fall to the floor. In just ten seconds, Slade went from having a chest full of lead to a perfectly fine chest and a ruined T-shirt.

Anatoli said something in Russian that Sara assumed was a curse. The man looked horrified, and why wouldn't he? The man must have seen dozens of men shot in the chest, but he had never seen the bullets fall out, the wounds heal, and for the man to be alive at the end.

The _Mirakuru_ enhanced man seemed to swell, his shoulders shaking in unmistakable rage. Slade was gone, he had been gone for a long time. Sara heard the sound of a bowstring stretch taut, and quick look behind her revealed that Shado was aiming an arrow directly at Slade's heart.

For a terrible moment, Sara was certain that Shado was going to attack him with the intent to kill, that she was going to shoot Slade in the heart.

But Shado didn't let the bowstring go. Instead she stood there, frozen, and just stared at Slade with the bow in her hands and the arrow aimed at his heart. Hesitance and fear were burning in Shado's brown eyes- her hesitance to attack her friend and fear for him. "Slade…." Shado murmured sorrowfully. Sara noticed that the blood that was splattered on Shado's shirt was not her own, as she saw no scratches or wounds, but saw a still bleeding cut on Ivo's arm. Even when out of control, Slade had not harmed her.

The man began to stalk towards them again, Anatoli pressed the trigger but all the came from the gun was the sound of clicking due to an empty cartridge. Sara thought that she was going to die right there in the freighter that had saved her. That look in Slade's eyes was the exact same dark madness she had seen in Oliver's, but Sara herself couldn't bring Slade out of his rage. She doubted anyone but Shado or Oliver could, and Oliver was still unconscious and Shado looked too hesitant to approach the monster that had taken over Slade's body.

Oliver's unconscious formed twitched violently. Another second later Sara saw him open his eyes. Slade stopped his advancement as he heard the other _Mirakuru-_ enhanced man stood on shaky feet.

"I… told you…" Oliver wheezed out, face covered in his own blood. "I won't… let you… hurt them…" At that last word he raced forward, moving so fast he seemed like a flash to Sara, and tackled Slade to the ground.

The two began to brawl again. It was a truly savage thing to witness, even worse than the throw down at the missile launcher. Before had been fueled by simple rage, but now these two had begun to get used to their superior strength and was using it to each other's advantage, but Slade's anger seemed to make the Australian even stronger, and Oliver looked ready to be defeated by his mentor.

 _Is this it?_ Sara wondered as she watched the two men fight, entranced by their inhuman fluidly and monstrous strength. _Is this the end? After going through so much: Ivo and his mercenaries and everything in between, is this the end of it all?_

Sara heard the bow drop to the ground, and saw Shado rush forward. Sara reached out to grab her and yank her back to safety, but her fingers grasped only air. "SHADO!" Sara screamed out as Shado raced towards the brawling men, towards certain death.

The young Asian archer didn't even so much as glance backwards to Sara and Anatoli, she only stared straight ahead at Oliver and Slade. The two were standing still, holding one another in an attempt to overpower the other. She touched Slade's shoulder with a gentle touch.

Slade swung around instinctively, mouth all but frothing as he raised his fist to whoever had dared interrupt him.

His fist paused a mere inch from Shado's mournful face.

"Slade." Shado said hoarsely, tone whisper-faint.

The fist trembled as though Slade was fighting the urge to bash her head in with his inhumane strength. His teeth gritted together, face a gory crimson and his eyes looked strained, _but he didn't attack._

Oliver paused in his own attack, eyes flickering between Slade and Shado uncertainly.

Shado slowly raised her hands; Slade tensed at the movement like a wild animal, but she didn't pause at the unsettling sign. Instead she slowly placed her own hands against Slade's bloodied fist, slender fingers wrapping themselves around the trembling fist. She said nothing. She just stared up at him with those ageless brown eyes that bespoke of a kind wisdom that only Shado could posses.

"Slade, please." That was all Shado said. Her hands were clutching his tightly.

It was all Shado had to say. Her words seemed to resonate within the torturous mind of Slade that had been enveloped in a mindless maelstrom of rage and hatred.

"S-Shado…" Slade murmured out, his voice strangled and choking as though it was agony to even speak.

Slade Wilson's entire body seemed to shake and shudder, perspiration clinging to his temple as his pupils dilated rapidly. Slade was trying to fight off the serum that had hooked itself onto him like a hungry parasite. He was struggling with all his might.

Slade was trying to fight back the _Mirakuru._

Shado's face twisted into a face of pure agony as she saw the pain in Slade, her brown eyes began to water ever so slightly as she clasped his hands with her own. "Slade, don't do this. This isn't you." Doe like eyes stared up into the tortured eyes of Slade, pleading with him to return to his senses. "This isn't the man that I love."

Slade's entire form seemed to deflate at those words; the redness of his face receded and the bulging veins disappeared. Sara blinked at the sudden transformation brought by Shado's words; one second Slade had seemed inhumanely immortal, a demigod of awesome power, but, now he looked frail and weak and very much human.

"I-I'm…" Slade seemed to choke on his words as he collapsed onto his knees, trembling. Shado knelt besides him, holding his sorrowful face in the palms of her hands, her fingers tracing his cheeks comfortingly. "I'm sorry _."_ He turned his head in the direction of Oliver, who was still breathing heavily. "I'm _so_ _sorry."_

Oliver's face was stricken as he came up to the kneeling, defeated man. Suddenly he wrapped his arms around Slade, pulling Shado in as well. Oliver whispered something that Sara couldn't hear, but some of the tension in Slade's shoulders seemed to disappear. The way all three clung to one another took Sara aback a bit, as it always did to see such dedication and love shared between all three. She hated having to be the one to break up such a emotional moment between them, but their mission had yet to be finished.

"We should probably move," Sara said, noting the various craters in the walls that seemed to have warped the entire hallway into a malformed hallway. "We're not done yet."

Shado turned her attention to Slade, kissing his cheek softly, "Slade, please, save your anger until it is necessary. We must let Ivo live, if only so he can face justice. If that justice is death, than I shall not refuse you the right, but it cannot be for vengeance for what he has done, only as atonement."

Slade nodded his head wearily, agreeing with her, before standing on shaky knees. Oliver and Shado rose as well, Oliver coming to stand by Sara's side, a hand placed comfortingly on Sara's shoulder. Oliver grabbed the end of his shirt and rubbed it on his face, cleaning up the blood. Slade grabbed one of Ivo's legs, no doubt to drag him across the floor like a sack of meat, and all knew that he wasn't going to be gentle, but no one seemed to really care.

"Uhm…"

Everyone turned towards the sound and all of them came face to face with an extremely confused Anatoli, who was still aiming a gun at Slade. But then he saw Oliver and lowered it in shock.

"O-Oliver?" He whispered, voice hoarse with shock and confusion. "How are you still alive?"

"Anatoli," Oliver greeted the Russian weakly; Anatoli winced at the sound, as though Oliver's voice had shocked him.

"Ivo killed you." Came the man's flat statement, but with a hint of wonder.

Oliver smiled sadly, almost mournful, "He wasn't the first one to try."

Anatoli looked behind him and saw the limp form of Ivo being dragged one-handed by a scowling Slade. "Is he…?" He trailed off, raising his dark brows questioningly. He looked thoroughly disappointed as he looked at the limp form being dragged through the hallways like a sack.

"Oh, he's alive all right." Slade said with a dark smirk that sent shivers down Anatoli's spine like ice water.

Anatoli's disappointment faded away instantly, an equally dark smirk gracing his face. "Good." He said vindictively, slowly pulling out a rusty knife from his pocket. "Very good." He looked at Ivo almost hungrily.

"How are you still alive? All the other prisoners died in the attack." Shado asked him curiously. She had been walking alongside Slade as he dragged Ivo's unconscious form and had aimed an arrow at Anatoli until Oliver had spoken to him without any signs of aggression.

Anatoli shrugged, "Girl tell me to go, I go." he nodded his head at Sara. "I keep cover and don't leave till fighting and gunfire over. I don't want to die, I prefer life."

Sara smiled at the Bratva leader, she had always liked him and his roguish charm. "It's good to see you again, Anatoli. I'm glad you weren't killed when we took over the _Amazo._ " She truly meant it as well. Out of all the prisoners on the _Amazo,_ the only one Sara would have wanted to live, aside from Peter and Thomas Flynn, would have been Anatoli. He might be a criminal, but he was a good man at heart.

"I seem to be the only one," Anatoli looked mournful at that, thinking of his friends and fellow prisoners who had been killed. "Hendrick, what happened to him?"

Oliver's heart seemed to shudder as the anger erupted from his chest like a beast ripping apart a cage, he forced it down as he gritted out: "Dead."

Anatoli smiled a little at that, the mournful look in his eyes fading. "Good. Hendrick was not good man, and he was terrible at gambling. Terrible cheater."

"No, he wasn't a good man." Oliver said gruffly, trying to ignore the flash of rage as he glanced at Sara, staring at the thick bruises forming around her delicate neck. The blotchy purple bruises clashed against the paleness of her skin, and Oliver could practically feel his form shudder with silent rage. He tried to contain it, he truly did, but Sara had nearly died by that man and Oliver had almost lost her. He couldn't go through that again. Losing someone he loved would break him even further. He would shatter like glass if he lost Sara, or Shado or Slade, and he knew that the _Mirakuru_ would take advantage of that.

He didn't want to lose control again.

It scared him.

It _terrified him._

To see his body move without his guidance, to feel nothing in his heart but burning hatred and an unsuitable bloodlust, how his hands ripped apart man with no hesitation, how he killed and killed and _killed_ without remorse. It wasn't him. That _thing_ that the Miracle had turned him into during the initial assault wasn't himself, but yet it _was_ him. And that scared him.

"We should get this over with," Slade grumbled as he dragged Ivo by the legs into another room that wasn't destroyed by their fight. "Once and for all."

None of the others seemed to disagree with the Australian spy.

"Wake him up," Oliver said, looking over at the unconscious Ivo. A wave of hatred and fury over washed all senses when he saw the doctor lying on the floor, alive and breathing. The _Mirakuru_ within him screamed and shrieked for vengeance, and his heart wanted the same. He ignored both.

Slade kicked Ivo in the side roughly. Ivo awoke with a grunt of pain; the man blinked wearily and tried to stand, but stopped when he caught sight of Oliver standing in front of him.

"Y-You… You're _alive?_ " Ivo sputtered out, eyes wide as though he was looking at Oliver's ghost.

Oliver smiled wryly at that. Ivo hadn't known that he had dropped a vial of _Mirakuru_ and that it had healed him and helped bring him back to life. Ivo's precious serum had healed the man he had killed. His dream had brought back an enemy more powerful than ether. The irony of it all made it somewhat humorous.

"Hello, Ivo." Oliver said amiably, slowly pulling out a knife from his pocket. Shado aimed an arrow at Ivo's chest while Slade cracked his knuckles menacingly, Sara stood still and held onto the pistol that Slade had given her earlier.

Ivo was still staring at Oliver with wide eyes; he looked positively terrified. "Impossible. You died. I _shot_ you." He said the last part with wonder, as though Oliver had become a piece to a puzzle he had been trying to solve. Ivo's brows rose before his eyes closed in realization, "The _Mirakuru._ " He concluded with a chuckle that raised the hairs on the back of Oliver's neck. "Of course. It brought your friend back, why not you?... the possibilities…" he trailed off, pondering the blessings – _ **curses**_ \- that the _Mirakuru_ could bring. He looked almost gleeful as he stared up at Oliver and Slade, examining them as though they were rats to experiment on.

"You're going to pay for everything you've done to us, you fuckin' monster." Slade growled deeply, fingers clenched around his machete as he lowered the blade to rest against Ivo's throat, the tip of the blade poking into the pale skin and a small droplet of crimson blood pooled out and began to trickle down Ivo's sweaty neck.

The insane glee that had twinkled in Ivo's eyes dimmed as he realized the severity of the situation. Ivo wasn't in control anymore; he was defenseless against these people he had tried so hard to kill. And he seemed to realize that too.

"Please," Ivo pleaded, his eyes gaunt and haunted as he stared at the ones he had tortured and hurt so cruelly, "I can help you." He looked at Slade and Oliver with some small bit of desperate knowledge in his eyes.

Anatoli sneered at him, "They say that living well is best revenge," he chuckled darkly, holding a rusty knife he had found for all to see. "I prefer torture."

Sara looked conflicted at that; she may hate Ivo for what he had done to her friends and the prisoners, but the look in Anatoli's eyes that screamed for blood unnerved her too much. She wasn't a killer, she had never taken a life nor ever had she ever hurt anyone directly, but now she was amongst killers and she had no say in the affairs they planned for Anthony Ivo.

"Wait," Ivo demanded, his hands raised above his head in surrender. "You need me," he turned his attention to Slade and Oliver. "You have the _Mirakuru_ in you. I can tell you how it works, I've spent my entire life studying it." Ivo began to sneer smugly, seeing the importance his knowledge would be needed to help understand what exactly was happening to the two men before him.

Shado placed a placating hand on Anatoli's arm; the Russian prisoner and former Bratva leader slowly lowered his measly weapon. The man looked bitter as he did so, but despite never meeting Shado, he knew that it was wise to listen to her. Oliver seemed to hold her opinion in value so he would do the same, even if all he wanted to do was cut out one of Ivo's eyes. He owed it to Oliver and Sara, who had freed him from his cage and prison.

"It was you," Slade stated gruffly, slowly stalking towards the doctor like a predator. "You shot my brother." Slade's eyes darkened, "You made him chose between Shado and Sara, knowing that one of them would die. You tried to destroy my family."

Ivo's eyes widened at that statement, the smug sneer wiping off of his face in an instant. "N-No! I-I…" His pleading was cut off by the dark glare sent his way by Slade.

"You wanted to destroy us." Slade cut him off, "You nearly did. But you underestimated us, and underestimated how far we would go for one another. Two of us came back from the dead, brought back screaming as blood pooled from our eyes and fire burned our veins with a toxic serum that alerted us for good. You shouldn't have underestimated us, Ivo. Maybe you would have managed to save your own skin if you hadn't." Slade turned to Sara, "Give me your gun."

Sara blinked at that, "Slade, what?"

"I said, give me your gun." Slade's tone left no room for argument.

The youngest Lance slowly unbuckled the pistol Slade had given her when they had landed from its holster. She wordlessly gave it to him.

 _Slade, what do you plan to do?_ Shado thought to herself as she looked at the Australian with concern. The darkness in his tone was not reassuring, nor was the burning need for vengeance in his eyes. _Slade… don't let it control you._

Slade looked at his pistol, turning it around in his hands and with deft, experienced hands, before he removed the clip from the pistol as well as the lone bullet in the chamber. He handed the empty pistol to Ivo, who took it with shaky hands.

"Show me how you shot Oliver," Slade Wilson said in a tone so soft it was but a mere whisper. Ivo stared at him, reminiscent of a deer in the headlights. When Ivo made no move to aim the unloaded pistol, Slade's face darkened to a gory vermilion with the veins around his temple popping out. _**"SHOW ME**_ **!"** Slade Wilson screamed, specks of spittle flying from his mouth.

Hesitantly Ivo raised the pistol to chest level, the secondary firearm shaky ever so slightly as Anthony aimed the gun at Oliver yet again for the second time. Oliver's eyes burned into Ivo's, searing cerulean staring into watery grey. As he stared at the empty pistol, Oliver couldn't help but remember the last time Ivo had aimed a gun at him.

" _Choose, Oliver!"_

Oliver's chest began to burn suddenly; the phantom pain of a bullet in his chest became almost unbearable as he stared into the nozzle of the gun aimed at his head.

Slade slowly walked around Ivo, his dark eyes taking in every detail as though trying to remember everything of the event that Slade hadn't seen. It was as though he wanted to be there for the second time, as he wasn't there to save his brother until it was too late. "Is that how you did it? Is that how you pointed the gun at them?"

Ivo swallowed back bile, sweat clinging to his brow as blood dripped from the cut on his cheek. Ivo looked terrified, just as terrified as Oliver and the others had been during that fateful nightmare that had taken place back on Lian Yu.

"Y-Yes." Ivo answered softly, swallowing thickly as the the pistol wavered.

When Anthony answered his question, Slade's face contorted into pure rage, eyes blazing in madness, and a heart beating for vengeance upon the man who had shot and killed his brother and tried to destroy his family. Before anyone could so much as blink, Slade had grabbed his machete, stepped around the shaking doctor, and in one swipe, severed the man's arm that held the gun pointed at Oliver.

Ivo's screams of pain and horror echoed off the metal hallways, reminiscent of the screams of the prisoners he had experimented on. The man fell onto his knees, his lone remaining hand clenching his bleeding stump as he continued to scream.

" _Slade_!" Shado said in shock, eyes wide as she looked at the bleeding stump in horror. Sara looked ready to dry heave as she saw the blood erupt from the bloody stump whilst Oliver remained silent, though out of all of them he was the only one to not be alarmed at the sudden change of events, aside from a certain Russian Bratva leader.

Anatoli groaned, though it wasn't heard due to Ivo's cries of pain, "You could have let me do that, my angry friend." He grumbled, though that didn't stop the sadistic smile from forming as he saw the monster that had killed his friends for body parts and his sick, twisted experiments rolling on the ground in agony.

"Anatoli!" Sara shushed him, making him grumble in Russian.

Slade didn't appear disturbed by the growing pool of blood forming at Ivo's feet; instead he leaned forward and gently wiped the blood off of his favored machete on Ivo's stark white doctor coat. "If you don't want to lose the other one, I suggest you stop screaming," he whispered hoarsely with no remorse or pity whatsoever.

"Slade that is not how we do things. That is not justice," Shado rounded on him angrily, her brown eyes lit with fury as she looked at her comrade.

"He wanted to kill you, Shado!" Slade yelled at her angrily, his knuckles wrapped around his machete tightly. "He shot Oliver point blank in the chest, if the kid had chosen differently Ivo could have shot you in the head like Fryers did to your father!" By then the Australian had come face to face with the Chinese woman, who, despite her smaller size, continued to glare into Slade's vengeful eyes. "There is no justice here, only vengeance!" He roared at her, spittle flying from his mouth.

"I know that, Slade. I know that had things gone differently, I would most likely be resting besides my father," At this Shado averted her gaze from Slade, who suddenly looked mournful as he realized what he had said to her. "But I know that despite what you see the world as, there is still light. Justice must be served, if we didn't, we would be no better than him," she looked at the crying form of Ivo with distaste.

Slade seemed to deflate at her words, the anger that had burned within him having sputtered out as he saw Shado's point. Guilt suddenly engulfed him, not because he hacked off Ivo's arm obviously, but because he had hurt Shado, which he had sworn to never do.

"Does it matter?" The sudden question from Oliver made everyone look at him. Oliver refused to look at them, opting to instead look at the bleeding form of the man who had killed him with a small frown. Just looking at him made his chest throb where Ivo's bullet had pierced him, killing him in the process. "He doesn't _deserve_ justice, Shado."

"Oliver," Shado looked uneasy as she saw the darkness threatening to consume her protégée appear yet again. That darkness didn't belong on her student nor on Slade, but not even she could predict when the _Mirakuru_ would rear it's head, and whenever it did… things went south at the speed of a speeding bullet. Both of their rampages and Slade cutting off Ivo's arm were perfect examples.

Oliver glanced at his mentor and fellow archer, "He doesn't deserve justice, and even if he does, what are going to do with him? Lock him in a cage for the rest of his life?"

"He did it to us, maybe give him a taste of his own medicine," Anatoli offered, looking rather hopeful. "Maybe hack a few bits and pieces off him too."

"We could flip a coin," Slade suddenly offered. "Heads, he lives. Tails, he dies." A gleam appeared in his eyes, "Leave it to chance."

"Who the hell decides a person's life by flipping a coin?" Sara demanded to know.

Slade shrugged at that, "There are some pretty fucked up two-faced people in the world, I wouldn't be surprised."

"C-Cu… Cur…. C-Cu…" Ivo rasped out heavily, his face contorted in agony as he clung to the bleeding stump where his arm had been; the look of pure and utter fear in his eyes made Oliver and Slade unknowingly smile, the _Mirakuru_ within them enjoying the twist of events where now Ivo was the one begging for mercy whilst they held his life in their hands, as the last time Ivo had killed both of them and, to the injected men, it was time to return the favor.

"Be quiet!" Slade barked at him.

"No, let him speak." Shado interjected.

By then Ivo had slowly gotten on his knees. Even though he was going through pure agony he managed to say one thing, "There's a… a…. cure…" He rasped out.

The four of them stared at Anthony in shock, none of them believing their ears. "What did you say?" Slade demanded as he stalked up to Ivo and placed the tip of his machete against Ivo's Adam's apple, slowly cutting into his flesh.

"There's a cure for the _Mirakuru_ ," Ivo admitted. "I spent my entire life…." He kneeled over in pain, "Looking for it… and while I did so… I created a cure."

"He's lying!" Slade spat out, machete pressed against Ivo's neck dangerously. "He's just saying things to save his own skin. We should kill him. _Now_." Slade's eyes seemed to darken, his pupils dilating. The _Mirakuru_ was emerging again with a vengeance.

Shado saw this and took action immediately. She wrapped her arms around Slade, whispering in his ear softly, trying to calm him. Oliver didn't hear what she was saying, but her words seemed to work as Slade's pupils slowly returned to normal, but the grimace remained. Slade lowered the machete away from Ivo's neck, but he held the handle tightly with white knuckles.

"I was never able to replicate the _Mirakuru_ serum from the original Japanese World War Two research I discovered. After conducting multiple experiments on the prisoners that I acquired these past few years-" Anatoli swore violently, face a brutish purple as Ivo said this, Sara looked away with shame. "-I was able to synthesize a solution that counteracts, _reverses_ , the physiological effects that the _Mirakuru_ produces: from more than human, _back_ to human."

"Do you have it with you now?" Oliver demanded as he walked to Slade's side and looked down on the man. This was the man had killed them, but now it seemed that he could be the man that could cure them. It sounded almost too good to be true that Oliver could hardly believe it.

Ivo nodded frantically, still clutching his bleeding stump. "Yes… I'll tell you where it is… if you do me a favor…" He gasped out, his face already growing paler.

"And what favor is that?" Slade demanded, anger laced within his gruff tone, though everyone knew that he was thinking about the cure and the potential it had to fix everything, to cure himself and Oliver from the burden of the _Miracle._

"Please, give me a quick death," Ivo pleaded softly, his once bright grey eyes now dulling from the pain. The others knew why he asked for this instead of them helping him as with such a grievous wound in their current area it was impossible for them to save him from infection. Ivo's medical supplies were more about taking pieces off of the body than keeping it together ironically enough.

"You don't deserve it," Oliver and Slade growled out as one in harmony. How could this piece of scum think they would grant him such an offer, a quick way out when he deserved the most painful of deaths?

"We could still do torture," Anatoli offered, holding up his rusty knife hopefully. "He may have lost arm, but he still has three other limbs… and face," he added on in thought.

Ivo ignored the Russian, only looking at Oliver. "I know," he said softly, eyes watery and dull from pain. "And I'm still asking." He turned his attention to Sara, which made Oliver want to punch him for daring to look at the woman he had saved and then later threatened to kill.

Some type of silent conversation seemed to happen between Anthony and Sara, an unspoken argument between two souls, before, finally, a wary agreement. The youngest Lance daughter seemed conflicted as she looked at her former employer and one time savior, but she slowly nodded her head, which made Ivo visibly relax in relief.

"Thank you," he whispered to her. "It's in my office safe… You know where it is, Sara."

Sara nodded her head, remembering where Ivo had hidden his safe in his quarters. The man had been paranoid about his research for the _Mirakuru_ and had hidden everything about the Japanese serum in there, if there was such a cure than Sara had no doubt where it would be.

Slade grabbed something from his pocket, Oliver blinked as he saw the .44 Magnum in Slade's hands. His chest throbbed painfully in memory as he looked at the familiar secondary firearm. It was Ivo's magnum, the gun that had killed him.

Slade handed the gun to Sara, never once looking at her, instead opting to stare at Ivo with soulless brown eyes; it was as though Slade wasn't even aware of reality, but rather far away in the dark recesses of his mind. Sara took the gun silently, her small hands trembling as she felt the cold weight in her hand.

Sara lifted the gun, aiming it at Ivo, with her finger on the trigger.

The gun shook.

Ivo watched her with bemused resignation, waiting for Sara to pull the trigger and end it all.

Sara didn't pull the trigger, however. She stood before the others, the gun in her hand and the muzzle of the magnum aimed at Ivo, but her hesitation seemed to numb her, the finger wrapped around the trigger frozen.

"I saved your life once, Sara." Ivo mused, smiling stiffly as he looked up at the woman holding the gun, still frozen in place. "It feels like a long time ago now. Time to return the favor."

Sara tried to swallow the bile that had crept up her throat, but it was a fruitless effort, it was as though a rock was lodged in her throat, unyielding and impossible to move. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe. She wasn't a killer, but yet here she held a gun with the intent to end a man's life. She couldn't do it. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything. She was frozen and numb to the world and the terrible horrors that dwelled within it.

She honestly tried to pull the trigger- to end it all. But all she could think as she stared into the pained eyes of Ivo was that this was a human being. Granted a twisted human being, but a human being nonetheless. What would her father think if he saw his daughter now? Quentin Lance had always told his daughters that killing was never the answer, but rather the choices of a coward. _Killing solved nothing,_ Quentin would say, _killing isn't justice, it is just vengeance. Vengeance is the actions taken by someone too afraid and too angry to act rationally, and in the end it will consume you, it will destroy you._

Would her father hate her if he knew what she was about to do? Would he call her a murderer? A killer?

Sara clenched her eyes shut as she wondered what her father would say, even as her entire being screamed at her to throw away the horrible weapon in her hand, to throw away the gun and the expectations of Shado, Slade and Oliver. They were the killers, not her. _They_ should be the ones to do it. Not her. She wasn't like them; she couldn't kill. She had never killed before. She never wanted to kill. She couldn't kill. It was against everything she knew, everything her father had told her and Laurel. She couldn't kill. It wasn't her. She couldn't kill.

She _couldn't_.

Her finger grew lax against the trigger, and Sara felt a brief moment of clarity: that she couldn't kill. Slade seemed to come to the same realization as well.

Slade snarled impatiently, a spark of life reappearing in his eyes that didn't resemble the normal Slade, but rather the _Mirakuru_ Slade. He strode forward with an animalistic prowl, reminiscent of a graceful predator, inhumane and precise, and ripped the magnum out of Sara's frozen hands.

No one stopped Slade as he examined the pistol. Sara seemed to deflate, though whether from relief or shame, Oliver could not tell.

Ivo hissed in pain as he saw Slade took the gun from Sara, perhaps taking away his chance for a quick death. Oliver found himself uncaring of Ivo's predicament, enjoying the harsh breathing that bespoke of the pain Ivo was feeling in his body at the moment.

Slade looked at Oliver, something seemed to come between the two in a silent conversation spoken only in a glance. They seemed to reach an understanding, just like how Sara and Ivo had come to one, but this time it would be enforced.

Slade offered the gun to him wordlessly, and for a moment all Oliver was aware of was the rage that threatened to bubble within him; the rage of the _Mirakuru_ practically howling for vengeance on the broken man kneeling before them. It was rather ironic in Oliver's opinion that the tables had been completely turned. Ivo now kneeled before them, weak and helpless like Oliver had kneeled a mere couple of weeks ago. Oliver had never felt the need to kill another human being burn so strongly within him, not even his hatred for Edward Fryers could compare to the hatred and contempt he held for Anthony Ivo.

He wanted to grab the gun that had killed him and put a bullet between Ivo's eyes, he wanted to make him suffer for the pain Ivo had brought upon their family. He had never wanted to kill so much in his entire life. He wanted to see those eyes gleaming with madness fade away into dull, glassy eyes that bespoke of death. The Oliver of before would have hesitated, like he hesitated with the guard in Fryer's watchtower and again when they fled from the camp after Slade killed Billy Wintergreen, but that Oliver had died too long ago. Purgatory had ripped him apart physically, emotionally, and spiritually and had left nothing left for the husk that he now was.

This man was the man who had threatened his family, and had even succeeded as well. Ivo had killed his brother: Slade. Ivo had threatened to kill someone who he now viewed as a sister: Shado. Ivo had threatened to kill someone who Oliver was beginning to realize he might hold feelings for: Sara. This man had tried to destroy his family, and might have succeeded had things gone differently than as they did at that clearing on that fateful night.

Oliver took the magnum from Slade's hand gratefully, inspecting the weapon that had killed him with morbid interest. He slowly held it up until it was pointed straight at Ivo's forehead, "Sara, look away," Oliver said softly, knowing that out of them all Sara was the most innocent and had never killed a human being before. He didn't want her to witness this. He didn't want Sara to become like him. He was too far gone, his loss of control over the _Mirakuru_ had showed him that, but that didn't mean Sara Lance had to become a killer as well.

But Sara didn't look away.

Ivo closed his eyes, patiently waiting for death. He didn't look scared, he looked accepting, nothing like Oliver himself when he gave up his life for Sara and Shado, but there was nothing great or honorable about this death, just the act of cutting away at a cancer that had been slowly trying to kill them all.

"Goodbye, Anthony Ivo," Oliver stated ironically, as when Ivo had been about to shoot him Ivo had said the same to Oliver. The karma was just morbidly hilarious in his opinion, or maybe it was the _Mirakuru's_ opinion, it seemed almost sentient, his father's ghost had been proof of that.

The shot rang throughout the _Amazo,_ the sudden and sharp sound echoing throughout the hallways that were littered with dead henchmen and prisoners alike. Ivo's body slumped against the wall, a single bullet having been shot right between his eyes. If not for the blood slowly trickling down his forehead, he would appear as though he was sleeping, if a man as mad as Ivo could even dream without being haunted by the nightmares he had created in reality. Oliver lowered the pistol, glanced at it with disgust, and threw it to the side, where it skittered across the floor and slid into a body of an anonymous goon, discarded and already forgotten.

"It's over…" Shado said softly, staring at Ivo's cooling body with no hidden relief. "It's finally over."

With Ivo finally dead, they could live in peace. They no longer had to fear missiles falling from the sky, bombs rigged in their home, or madmen with guns and impossible choices. They had done it. They had taken the _Amazo_ with all of their family members alive and intact. With Ivo and his men dead, there was nobody to stop them anymore. They could finally return to their lives before Lian Yu. They could finally _go_ _home_.

"No… It's not over," Oliver said as he turned around to face the four he viewed as his friends, his anchors, _his family_. "Not yet."

"The cure," Sara said, which made the Queen heir nod his head slowly, almost hesitantly, as though the mere action of nodding one's head was almost impossible to do. Seeing how much control the _Mirakuru_ had on Ollie, Sara could easily tell that the virus, whether it was sentient or not, didn't like the idea of a cure.

"We can cure you two," Shado said softly, gazing at Slade with wondering eyes. "You don't have to fight for control anymore… You can be free."

"Free…" Slade repeated with wonder, sounding dazed. His eyes seemed to glaze over as he pondered that beautiful thought, the idea of a life without the enticing voices of the _Mirakuru_ whispering in their ears and within their ears was something both Oliver and Slade yearned for. They had learned in the past few hours just how dangerous the _Mirakuru_ was to them, and just how much power it held over them.

They had both lost control of themselves, surrendering themselves to the demons that dwelled without their hearts. They had lost sight of who they were. They had become nothing more than puppets controlled by a monster.

Neither of them wanted to experience that hopeless feeling of losing control ever again.

If Ivo had been telling the truth…. They could be free from the curse of the longer would the voices whisper in their ears, enticing them to do horrid acts. No longer would the voices be able to impose its will upon them.

_Free…_

Oliver felt a flicker of hope build within him, lifting his spirits ever so slightly from where they had been pinned by the large boulder of reality that kept them down. Oliver wanted to smile, he wanted to laugh with glee and he wanted to do nothing but embrace that beautiful feeling of freedom and control. He wanted to fling aside all dark thoughts that dwelled within him and embrace everything full of light and cheer.

Ivo was _dead._ It was all over. Oliver waited to feel that hole in his heart and soul that had been created when Ivo had killed him to fill. Surely Ivo's death had solved that missing piece of him that death had snatched from him, that missing piece that the _Mirakuru_ had suppressed when he had returned to life. So why wasn't it filling up? Why wasn't the wound healing itself?

Oliver had thought that Ivo's death would have solved everything. It _should_ have solved everything.

And yet…

Oliver stared at Ivo's body, just staring at the cooling body that had once housed a truly twisted soul. He had thought that killing Ivo would bring peace within his heart and mind. That it would shush the terrible whispers, quell the burning anger and terror within his heart. He had thought that Ivo's death would bring him clarity. He thought that the terrible anger that burned within him, slowly drowning him, would ebb away into nothing. He had thought that he would feel _something._

Instead, he felt nothing. No satisfaction at seeing this disgusting human being dead at his feet. No fulfillment for fulfilling his vow of vengeance against Ivo for all he had done.

Just _nothing._

Oliver felt nothing because he knew that, even with Ivo dead, Anthony Ivo had still won in the end.

Ivo had gone out on his own terms with a quick death that he wasn't worthy of. Even at their complete mercy, Ivo had managed to wrestle control over them, imposing his will upon them just as he had when he had pointed the gun at Sara and Shado that terrible night. Ivo hadn't deserved a bullet to the head; he had deserved worse, much worse. Even Ivo himself had agreed upon that, and yet here he was with a bullet in his skull.

Oliver didn't feel anything that resembled happiness or fulfillment.

Instead Oliver felt like Ivo had played them once again.

Oliver felt cheated.

Oliver felt as though he had lost and Ivo had won.

It was frustrating.

It was _infuriating_.

"Ollie?" A hand, soft and warm to the touch, took hold of his own. Sara was gazing up at him worriedly, a lone hand rose and rested against his whiskered cheeks with a surprising tenderness. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," Oliver lied, his mouth dry. "I'm fine."

Sara didn't look convinced, but she dropped her hand and took a step back. She turned around to look at Ivo's body, slumped over with blood draining from the hole in his forehead; the man looked as though he was simply sleeping, as though he was in peace. Sara stared at the corpse with unblinking eyes and an expressionless face; Oliver wished he could know what she was thinking at that moment. He placed a hand on her shoulder, grasping it with deliberate tenderness, and brought her closer to him; Sara leaned against him as she tore her eyes from Ivo's bleeding form to stare up at Oliver; her eyes were conflicted and heavy with unknown emotion.

 _She's the most human of us,_ Oliver realized as he wrapped his arm around her comfortingly. _Slade and I aren't human anymore… I don't even know what we are anymore._ The fear was building within him, beating against his chest like a battering ram; he was terrified of the serum that ran through his veins, and the whispers in his head that never seemed silent. He could hear them now, even with the _Mirakuru_ pushed into the dark recesses of his mind; he could hear the voices, some sounding exactly like his father's voice, whispering tempting promises. Would those whispers ever grow silent? Or was he cursed to hear the madness of the _Mirakuru_ for the rest of his life?

"We should find this cure," Shado's voice brought Oliver out of his depressive thoughts. Oliver's mentor looked around the hallway of the freighter with narrowed eyes, "I don't suppose any of you know how to sail a freighter?" The other three looked at her blankly, and the dark-haired archer sighed in defeat.

Anatoli cleared his throat, and raised a calloused hand. "I can sail the freighter. I served in the navy; it should be no problem."

Shado looked at him, while Slade raised a brow. "You can sail us to Shanghai?" Shado asked him earnestly, a small spark of life flaring in her eyes.

The Russian nodded his head, idly scratching his scraggly beard thoughtfully. "Da, is easy." He said finally, "I shall go now," he held out his hand towards the Queen heir who clasped it gratefully, before offering his hand to Slade, who shook it suspiciously, then to Sara, and lastly Shado. "You four freed me from my prison and my hell." He bowed his head to them respectfully, "You saved my life. Sailing you home is the least I can offer to you all. The Bratva will not forget this; from this day forward consider yourselves dear allies and companions to the Brotherhood."

Oliver felt a lump in his throat; something about Anatoli's words struck something within him deeply. He wondered if it was possible to trust someone outside of the three other castaways besides him; Oliver decided if that was the case than Anatoli Knyazev might just be one of the few exceptions.

The mafia leader began to walk down the corridor towards the stairwell that lead to the upper deck, Oliver called out to him and jogged over to him. "I want to know one thing," he said to the Russian, "Why did you help me when I was fighting Slade? You saw us, you saw what we could do." He didn't have to elaborate much for Anatoli to understand.

"You mean how you two were throwing one another against metal walls, and _breaking_ said metal walls with your fists?" Anatoli ventured.

Oliver nodded sheepishly.

Anatoli looked at Oliver Queen with starling intensity before clasping the man's shoulder tightly. "Ivo told the entire ship, crew and prisoners alike, of what happened in that clearing. Ivo was impressed with you, Oliver. He might have hated you, but he respected you the same. Normally if Anthony Ivo respects someone, I would want to kill them, but, just this once, I agree with him. You gave your life for those two women," he nodded his head in the direction of Shado and Sara. "Even when you could have taken the easy way and save yourself, you did not. You died so that they could live. The Bratva is a family, and we would all die for one another, for we believe that strength of will is stronger than even physical strength. I respect you more than you can know."

Oliver felt a lump rise in his throat; somehow Anatoli's passionate words were reassuring to the young billionaire; it felt as though Anatoli had lifted a monstrous burden off of Oliver's shoulders.

"Peter once told me something," Anatoli said thoughtfully, remembering his fellow prisoner who had succumbed to both the radiation poisoning and a bullet meant for Anatoli during the assault of the _Amazo._ "Ivo had experimented on him, poisoning him with radiation. He wanted to know if the _Mirakuru_ could cure cancer. Peter was his unwilling participator. Peter told me of what Ivo had said to him as he slowly killed him through the radiation testing, Ivo said that 'the essence of heroism is to die so that others can live'." He looked away, lost in thought. "Peter told that to me as you took the _Amazo,_ right as he took a bullet in the shoulder when he threw himself in front of me. Ivo might have been the one to first say it, but whenever I think of those words, I don't see them as excuses Ivo had given to torture his fellow man, but rather the last words of a brave man who had given his life for me without hesitation."

"And as to why I will not betray you?" Anatoli smiled wryly at that, "I've seen your strength and durability, Oliver. I believe going against that would be suicide. I prefer life."

Oliver couldn't help but laugh at that, he liked Anatoli and his dry wit; it was rather refreshing, even if some would call it morbid and dark.

Oliver shook the Russian's hand once more, "Godspeed, Anatoli."

"Prochnost, Oliver." Anatoli clasped his hand tightly.

"What does that mean?"

"In Russian? Strength."

* * *

"No way…" Sara whispered in shock, staring at the contents of the safe. She slowly took out the cure made of deep bluish liquid. Ivo had said it had been in the safe but the doctor hadn't mentioned there was only _one_ vial: which meant only _one_ of them could be cured.

One could be cured of the curse of the _Mirakuru_ , but the other would be forever damned by it.

Oliver's fists clenched tightly, "Damn it _…"_ He whispered, voice hoarse and shaky as he looked at the lone vial that could be his cure or his damnation. "Damn it all to hell…" Fury overcame him, flooding his veins and tingeing his vision a violent crimson. He felt the familiar claws of the _Mirakuru_ try and hook itself onto him, clinging to his rage like a parasite.

He punched a metal wall, making it twist and implode under his super strength, leaving nothing but a twisted crater. "Why is it that _every time_ something can go in our favor, it just fucks up things even more!?" He yelled out, his vision swarming in crimson as fury overtook him.

Shado shook her head, silently agreeing with Oliver. "Is there any chance we can split the cure fifty-fifty and give it to both of them, would that work?" She asked the Lance daughter who was the only one who actually knew anything about advanced medicine.

Sara shook her head at that, her lip bit in thought, "No, the _Miracle_ is like a virus, a really, _really_ powerful virus. We would need a full dosage for each of them if we want it to work… _if_ it works," she added on as an afterthought. "Splitting wouldn't do anything, they need all that they can get if they want to compete with that serum."

"So then who gets to be cured and who gets to be left with the psychotic voices of a loved one in his head telling him to murder everything that has a pulse?" Slade demanded, rage burning in his eyes.

Sara glanced over at Shado, pleading with her to tell her what to do. She glanced back at Slade, "I-I don't know."

" _ARGH_!" Slade punched his own side of the wall, creating a crater by Oliver's. "GOD _DAMNIT_!"

Shado placed her arms around him, trying to console him. Slade breathed heavily, face red from fury but his eyes only showed a weariness in them. Slade clung to Shado, arms wrapped around her lithe frame as tightly as possible, as though she were his anchor to reality.

"It's not fair," he whispered to her, voice trembling and broken from despair.

"I know, Slade," Shado whispered back, just as distressed as her friend.

"What do we do?" Sara asked them, looking between Oliver and Slade with wide, worried eyes. "There's only one vial," Sara said bitterly, accepting the harsh reality. "Only one can be cured. But who?"

They all remained silent. Neither had an answer. Who would be given the only cure to the madness that dwelled within them? Who would find salvation and who would find damnation?

…

Oliver opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't form any words. He gave up and hung his head in resignation, feeling the weight of the world crash upon his shoulders, dragging him downwards and drowning him with harsh reality that there was no such thing as a happy ending for any of them.

…

"…. It should be the kid," Slade whispered, his voice gruff. "The kid gets the cure."

The others stared at him in shock at his declaration, and none of them were as surprised as Oliver Queen. The young archer stared at his mentor with wide eyes, looking both befuddled and boggled.

 _Slade…_ Shado thought softly, looking at the man she had come to love, a man who at one point in his life only looked out for himself. Lian Yu might have changed him to make him see that it was survival of the fittest and that one should only look out for himself, but she and Oliver had changed him too.

The Queen heir shook his head, "No. It should be Slade." He asserted with crossed arms, glaring at Slade as though daring for the Australian to argue. "It _will_ be Slade."

"You need it more, kid," Slade snapped at him as he crossed his own arms. The two brothers glared at one another, eyes fierce as they stared and glowered, trying to make the other brother see sense. "You went berserk."

"You did too," Oliver rebuffed without a moment of hesitation.

Slade's face seemed to quiver at that reminder, but it was gone soon enough. "But I'm me. I've always been the killer, the one with blood on his hands. But you… you've killed, yes, but you've never gone out of control like I have. You never signed up for this, I did. I came to Lian Yu already a killer, you came as an innocent idiot. Your heart is stronger than mine, purer too. I killed my first man and don't even lose a blink of sleep, but when you killed your first man you had nightmares for months. You're a better man than me, Oliver Queen. But if that _Mirakuru_ stays in you, you'll lose everything good in you. Something that I never had. I was made to kill. You weren't. You were forged by Lian Yu to kill, but that doesn't mean you have to become me. I won't let you." Slade said emotionally.

"Slade…" Oliver whispered hoarsely, unable to comprehend –to _accept_ \- what Slade had just said. "Don't do this, please." But Oliver knew that the choice had been made; Slade would not give in no matter how hard he tried. He honestly wanted to hold the older man down and give him the cure, but he knew that wouldn't work.

But it just wasn't fair!

After everything they've done, after everything they've had gone through, it had led up to this disappointing moment where only one of them could be saved. Slade deserved the cure just as much as Oliver did, but had accepted the fact that the young archer would be the one to be given the cure.

"Slade…. Thank you…." Tears began to pool in his eyes, but Oliver did not wipe them away.

Sara slowly approached him, the cure in her hand.

"Are you ready?" Sara asked him, looking up at him.

Oliver tried to smile to show that he wasn't nervous, but he felt as though he couldn't even move. He was trembling a little, though maybe it was because of the _Mirakuru_ wrestling with his will, it wanted to knock away the cure in Sara's hand. It was fighting, but Oliver fought back.

He wouldn't let the _Mirakuru_ control him anymore. Finally, Oliver would be free from the Miracle and the curses it brought. He would no longer have to hear those voices that whispered in his ears with sweet, tantalizing offers that made him wonder of the possibilities.

He held out his arm, pulling back the sweaty bloodstained sleeve to reveal his skin. "Do it." Sara came up to him, the needle in her hand. She aimed it downwards, ready to inject him.

"We should-….." Oliver paused suddenly, jerking his arm away from the awaiting needle, whilst Slade's eyes narrowed. The two men looked at one another, obviously befuddled about something. They could hear a sound outside of the freighter, a whistling sound that seemed to be getting closer. Oliver didn't know what it was.

Slade figured it out first, his ASIS training kicking in when he recognized the sound for what it truly was. "Get down!" he screamed, lunging towards Shado.

Explosions rang throughout the _Amazo,_ fire erupting, and metal torn apart almost instantaneously.

Oliver saw Slade grab Shado, wrapping his arms around her smaller form as though to act as a shield.

Sara was flung backwards, the syringe in her hand knocked away by the force of the explosion. Oliver watched, almost in slow motion, as the syringe with his salvation fell before him, but his eyes were drawn to Sara. He did the only thing that was on his mind, and grabbed Sara, letting the vial fall, and wrapped his arms around her to shield her.

He saw out of the corner of his eye that the syringe that held the cure to _Mirakuru_ hit the floor. The vial burst open, the cure seeping out of it and into the cracks of the flooring.

The cure was _gone_.

His salvation destroyed.

He clung to Sara as he felt tremors shake the _Amazo_ , rocking the freighter violently. He faintly felt something warm against him, flickering around him, searing his flesh. _Fire_.

The _Amazo_ burst apart, breaking off into several pieces as explosions rang throughout the freighter. Sara clung to him as Oliver clung to her. Oliver was faintly aware that a part of his back was on fire. It didn't hurt him, but if the fire reached Sara…

There was another explosion.

A hole in the wall suddenly appeared, ripped through the metal plating. Immediately it was as though a floodgate had opened. The ocean burst into the room with the extreme force, pushing the four backwards with its terrible power.

The seawater rushed in, filling the room quickly. "Oliver!" Slade screamed as both he and Shado were swept under the water by the current, their forms disappearing in the seawater.

"Slade! Shado-" Oliver's scream was cut off as he was suddenly pulled under by the current, it was as though something had hooked onto his foot and was pulling him with the force of a god. As he was pulled towards the hole and the open ocean, his head hit against the metal wall, dazing him as he was carried. He faintly felt Sara struggling against his grip, trying to swim. His head ached and crimson flashed through his vision, stunning him. He faintly realized that he had let go of Sara, but he couldn't see where she was.

Oliver sank like a stone, stunned and dazed. Air bubbles were erupting from his mouth, and his lungs were burning. The _Mirakuru_ was screaming in his ear, but it only further served to distract him. He stared upwards as he sank to the ocean floor, pinned down by ocean's massive weight. He could faintly see the _Amazo_ sinking, broken apart like a destroyed toy. He couldn't see Shado. He couldn't see Slade. He couldn't see Sara.

He saw nothing but water and sand and air bubbles and darkness. He heard nothing but the rapid beating of his heart, thrumming painfully fast as though trying to burst out of his chest. He heard the Miracle shrieking within him, panicking and fearful.

Was this how he was going to die?

Oliver would have laughed if he had any air left within him. He was going to drown in the North China Sea, just as how he should have two years ago. The irony wasn't lost on him, if anything he found it morbidly amusing.

 _Well… it's one way to be cured,_ Oliver thought to himself as the darkness converged upon him. He faintly saw something on the ocean's surface, something that looked suspiciously like a boat. But it couldn't be. The _Amazo_ had sunk; he could see its broken skeleton sinking alongside him.

Oliver felt the cold seep into his bones, washing away all his strength and will to fight. He was so tired.

 _Shado… Slade… Sara…_ Oliver thought to himself as the darkness overcame him, submerging his vision with eternal darkness. He felt himself floating, light and free.

Oliver fell unconscious at the bottom of the ocean floor.

* * *

Oliver could faintly hear distant sounds, muffled voices that seemed incomprehensible to Oliver's numb mind but were still apparent: the sound of water dripping slowly, the fast beating of his heart thundering in his head. He couldn't see, his eyelids were too heavy to open. He resigned himself to resting, believing that he was safe, that the freighter had been nothing more than a bad dream, that the missiles hadn't fallen and that he had not drowned in the ocean. And he believed it too.

But then he heard something that did not make sense.

A mixture of sounds that did not belong on Lian Yu: the sound of roaring cars, blaring music erupting from cheap stereos, a hundred conversations melded into a single dull murmur, the annoying sparking of a flickering light. It was the sound of life and civilization, which was certainly _not_ Lian Yu.

Oliver leapt from the bed and grabbed the closest thing nearest as a weapon. The weapon of his choice happened to be a simple lamp. He accidently ripped the wire with his strength and sparks erupted from the outlet, but he paid it no mind. He shifted his fingers around the ceramic lightning fixture and looked around.

He was in a small room that looked like it belonged to a somewhat seedy apartment complex, a quick glance upwards showed electric lights and a spinning fan. The décor looked rather Asian in design, and Oliver spotted several books in Mandarin that he couldn't understand what they said. He was somewhere with electricity; Lian Yu didn't have that.

"Where the hell am I?" Oliver wondered as he stumbled through the room, still clutching onto the lamp. His head was ringing and throbbing as though he had drank several bottles of Vodka over the course of several minutes, and his throat felt as though sandpaper had been rubbed against it. The _Mirakuru_ was silent, but Oliver could feel it at the edge of his subconscious, lurking like an unwanted shadow.

All Oliver could think of was Slade, Shado and Sara. They were all he thought about, though his current whereabouts was a bit of a curiosity to him.

The door opened, and Oliver held his weapon high above him, ready to smack the intruder with the lamp. He paused his advance, however, when he saw who had entered the room. It wasn't the clichéd mercenary armed to the teeth, it wasn't a madman like Ivo or a monster like Fryers. Instead it was a woman dressed in a sharp-looking suit and smiling a faintly smug smirk. He lowered the lamp ever so slightly.

The woman was unfamiliar to him. She had dark skin and her short hair done up in a simple, yet somehow elegant, bun. She wore dark red heels and an expensive suit. Everything about her stated punctual and refined, and Oliver was rather inclined to hit her with his lamp. That was, of course, until she spoke.

"Good morning, Mr. Queen."

The usage of his surname, and the simple fact that there were no guns aimed at him, made Oliver's tense form relax somewhat slightly, but only slightly. He had gone through too much to lower his guard now.

"Are you going to hit me with the lamp?" The woman asked with a raised brow.

"I'm debating it," Oliver replied truthfully, his voice hoarse from his near drowning. "It's not the best weapon, but I'm rather good at killing people in unorthodox ways."

"You're a rather interesting man, Oliver Queen." The unknown woman said this slowly, and Oliver wondered just what she meant. "We found you floating in the ocean, somehow alive despite the predator strikes we had used to destroy the _Amazo."_

It hadn't been random explosions that had separated Oliver from the rest, but predator strikes.

_Of course…_

_Just my luck,_ Oliver thought bitterly to himself. He stared at her, wondering if she was friend or foe; he was betting on the latter. "My friends?" His voice wavered, betraying the fear that had begun to build within him. Had they survived the predator strikes and the ocean currents? "They were with me, but the ocean…." He closed his eyes shut, clenching his fists tightly to his sides.

If they were dead, if he had lost his friends, his _family_ , he would ensure that their deaths were not meaningless. He would kill this woman before him, the woman who had let those predator strikes go. The _Mirakuru_ encouraged this, but Oliver didn't mind it for once. If Shado, Slade and Sara had died when their future had been so bright, when escape had been held in their hands, it wouldn't matter to Oliver if the _Mirakuru_ took over again. Who would be left for him to care about? The phantom memories of his sister and mother, who lived on the other side of the world, wouldn't help him against the Miracle that had cursed him.

"They're alive, Mr. Queen."

Oliver's eyes snapped open, relief rushing through him. "Where are they?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes at the women who had quite literally bombed him and his friends. "Where's Sara, Slade and Shado?" He was trembling near the end, his fingers twitching.

The women looked at his hands with interest, she seemed to remain calm but Oliver could see the ever so slight tensioning in her shoulders, and how one of her hands casually moved behind her back to where a gun was no doubt holstered there. "There is no need for violence, Mr. Queen. I merely wish to talk."

"I don't want to _talk._ I want my friends."

The woman's eyes narrowed dangerously, and for a moment Oliver realized that this woman was someone who was not to be trifled with. "Follow me," she turned and left out of the doorway, leaving Oliver alone in the downtrodden room. For a moment Oliver debated on just taking a chance to run for it, but then he reminded himself that his friends might need him, and the woman knew where they were.

"Son of a bitch…" Oliver muttered as he left the room, "I'm already regretting this."

He opened the door that served as the exit in the other room, and was immediately blinded by the sunlight, causing him to raise his arm to cover his eyes. He immediately noticed the neon signs written in a language he recognized as Chinese, and saw the woman in the red heels standing before a car with two men at her side, both of them armed.

The woman regarded him for a moment, before slipping inside the car in the front seat. She looked at him through the open window, and simply said:

"Welcome to Hong Kong, Oliver Queen."

Oliver got into the car.

 


End file.
